Their Final Year
by justagirlwhowrites1234
Summary: Rose used to be friends with Scorpius. Then he started acting strangely, avoiding her, teasing her - so she tried to forget about him. Now it's their final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and he wants to be friends again. Rose is all too happy to be his friend, but soon her year may get extremely complicated... Disclaimer - I do NOT own 'Harry Potter'.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One:**

In the crowded platform, I could see nothing but the steam emanating from the scarlett train in front of me. Lily was supposed to be meeting me here, yet she was probably off somewhere in a passionate clinch with her most recent boyfriend, Matthew. Hugo had already gone off to chat to his gang, so he wasn't my responsibility anymore. I sighed, but immediately regretted it, as I inhaled some of the strong fumes the Hogwarts Express was sending off. It was so like Lily to be late - she was only a fifth-year, but was already one of the most popular girls in school, and she had most of the boys in my year lusting after her. Although she wasn't the most popular with the girls, Lily was certainly popular with the boys. Not that her parent's knew about that - as far as they knew, she was still their baby girl.

I leaned back against a stone pillar, crossing my arms against my chest. This would be my last year at Hogwarts. I had to admit I would miss it - a lot. James, my other cousin, had left two years previously, but Albus was in my year; although he'd never admit it, I knew he was really going to miss Hogwarts.

Suddenly, I felt my hair shifting slightly, tickling my ear, as if a breeze was trickling through it. But it wasn't a breeze. I groaned in annoyance. It was breath, and I knew who's.

"Scorpius, go away." I muttered, looking down, so that my flaming red hair covered my equally red cheeks.

"And why would I do that?" he laughed - even though I couldn't see his face, I knew he was grinning.

"Because you haven't been here ten seconds and you're already annoying me. I don't know where Albus is, if that's what you want," I said, tipping my head even further forward. _Why can't Lily get here now so I can leave?_

Scorpius laughed again. I got the impression he had leaned in very close to me. "Actually, that's not what I came for. I came to talk you, Rose." he murmured in my ear, his words making the hair around my ear tickle my skin. I blushed again, and closed my eyes, breathing in his scent accidentally.

"Scorpius, you're embarrassing yourself." I said, trying to move away - but his cool fingers had already snagged themselves under the cream lace sleeve of my top. _Don't react, don't react, don't react..._

"I just wanted to know what books you had this year," he chuckled, releasing my top and moving in front of me, thankfully keeping his distance this time. I shifted my head upwards to meet his eyes. _Big _mistake.

Every time I caught sight of him, I couldn't help but marvel at the flawless mask that was his face. His features were chiseled to perfection, his lips in startling contrast to the rest of his icy skin, were a deep red, and even though I didn't want to, I thought about kissing them. His hair was amazing too - soft, shiny blonde. It swayed effortlessly whenever he moved, and it was the kind of hair that you could just tell wasn't styled - just naturally perfect. If only he had a different personality.

When I'd first met Scorpius in the my first year, we'd actually been friends. He'd been funny, sweet, and desperate not to be in Slytherin, thus seemingly deserving of his family's sinister reputation. I'd been warned about him by my father; apparently it was necessary for me to best him at everything, although it was immediately apparent that it was not possible - Scorpius and I were of equal prowess at almost everything we tried our hand at - although I _was _better at Potions.

We'd remained friends well into our fourth year, good friends even - much to the distain of my father - yet then for some reason he began to distance himself from me, never talk to me unless absolutely necessary. I'd originally confronted him about this, but after many attempts at extracting a response, I gave up, accepting that we wouldn't be friends anymore.

He began acting oddly about a year later, just after I turned sixteen. Teasing me, creeping up behind me - even getting his best friend, Albus, my cousin, to give me strange little notes from him. I put this change down to the fact that he was probably trying out some flirting techniques, before he put them into practice with Holly, the Ravenclaw Seeker, who constantly had boys following her around and meeting up under the willow tree - but _not _the Whomping Willow - the last time two people rendezvoused there, both of them ended up in the hospital wing with severely broken bones.

I gradually learned to ignore Scorpius' jibes, yet for some inexplicable reason I found myself constantly craning my neck to see him, listening intently for news about him from the Slytherins, and paying attention to Albus whenever he began talking about him. No, Scorpius Malfoy has not gone unnoticed. Whenever I caught sight of him, my bones would turn to jelly, my heart would start pounding like a racehorse and my head would start to spin - but then he'd open his mouth, and the magic would be gone.

Rolling my eyes, I rummaged in my bag for my booklist. Brushing my curly locks of hair away from my eyes, I looked him in the face. "If I tell you, will you leave me alone?" I asked, keeping an eye out for Lily. Scorpius said nothing, only nodded. He held out his long, pale fingers, and I got the sense he wanted to read it, not listen to me recite it. I passed him my booklist, and as his emerald green eyes scrolled down the page, I couldn't help but remember how nice he used to be - how when he laughed a gold spark would seem to appear in his eyes, his mouth would curl up into a shape that only Scorpius Malfoy's lips could make. _I do miss my friend,_ I thought. _It's such as shame he's here anyway._

I realised I'd been staring off into space for a very long time, deep in though. Scorpius was looking at me like I was mad - no change there, then. I blushed as scarlett as the train in front of us, and snatched my booklist back from him, just as Lily from the smoke, bounding toward me.

"Are you finished?" I snapped at Scorpius, angry that he could make me blush so easily.

Scorpius grinned that special smile of his. "I suppose I have to be, don't I?" he muttered, just as Lily arrived.

"Hey, Scorpius, looking good! Rose, Leanne and Mara and looking for you, plus entourage. They say they have big news for you," Lily said, grinning up at me from under her dark lashes. Lily wasn't especially beautiful - she was pretty, of course, but what made the boys fawn all over her was her confident nature - she knew just how to play them right. This was also what made her unpopular with a lot of the girls - she had a tendency to go out with other people's boyfriends- but Lily didn't seem to care about them. We looked very similar, Lily and I, as we both had inherited the Weasley colouring. Our skin was very pale, so pale it almost glowed, our eyes both light shades of brown, and our hair was the exact same shade of red, except that Lily had hit the jackpot and got the straight hair. I was left with the curly, wild hair. Now I was older, I learned how to tame my fiery mane, so that it was now just waves that 'cascaded like burning lava down my back' - as Leanne described it - yet even so, I wished for Lily's naturally straight, swingy locks.

I smiled at the mention of my friend's names. Leanne and Mara were twins, and probably the most popular girls at Hogwarts - funny, smart, and my best friends. We were always together, usually with a few of their fans. They made me popular by default, but to be honest I couldn't care less for the third years that copy our clothes, and the first years who follow us around and try to look cool.

"Great! Where are they?" I asked.

"Oh, I just told them to find a carriage and we'd join them there. I didn't want to keep them waiting," she said, airily.

I frowned. Sitting with Lily on the Hogwarts Express wasn't exactly a chore, but it wasn't something I'd do if my mother didn't tell me to. Not that I didn't enjoy having Lily around - sort of - it was just that my friends had secretly confided in me that they found her annoying and self-centered, and I really didn't want them badmouthing her to anyone. She had enough talk about her as it was. As it was, I couldn't physically force her to sit somewhere else.

"Come on then," I sighed. I turned around to say goodbye to Scorpius. He was looking at me in a strange way. However, this odd face vanished the second I noticed it, and he smiled at me again. Not his fake, cool-guy smile. His real smile. The smile that made me wish over and over again that he wasn't such a jerk.

"See you there, then." he grinned, extracting one hand from his jean pocket and holding it out in front of me. _Does he actually want to shake hands? Who does that anymore? _Bewildered, I extended my hand too, and he clasped it in a firm handshake.

He was probably just being friendly, if a little formal. _Yeah, as if. Scorpius Malfoy, friendly?_

Suddenly, I felt something being pressed into my hand. Confused, I pulled my hand away and looked at it contents. There was a small piece of folded up parchment in my palm. I looked up at Scorpius to ask him what the hell he was doing, but he had already swaggered off to meet up with his fellow Slytherins.

As I walked towards towards the train, I quietly unfolded the parchment. There was something written in Scorpius handwriting.

_Meet me at the One Eyed Witch Passageway before the Feast. There's something I want to talk to you about._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

The carriage ride seemed ridiculously slow. The train journey had been fine, with Leanne and Mara giving me not one second of silence so I could think about Scorpius. I was very grateful for that. It turned out that their 'big news' was that they were going to a Muggle university next year.

"Why, though? Can't you get a job at the Ministry?" I'd asked, perplexed.

They'd just turned their identical faces towards each other, and after a millisecond of silent talking between them, Leanne had said, "Yes, but out parents are both Muggles, so they want us to experience Muggle life a bit more -"

"And also, Muggle boys don't do Bat-Bogey Hexes on each other -" Mara had continued.

"Or get Spattergroit -," Leanne had added.

"Or magically increase parts of their body for fun." Mara had finished, rolling her eyes.

I opened my mouth to respond, but somehow ended up on the floor with them laughing.

Lily had left halfway through the journey to go and sit with Andrew - _I'd thought she was going out with Matthew _- much Leanne and Mara's relief.

When we'd pulled into the station, I looked everywhere to catch a glimpse of Scorpius, but he was nowhere to be seen - either he hadn't left the train yet, or Hagrid was blocking him from my view.

" 'Ello, Rose! How's yer parents? I can' chat fur long, these firs' years don' move 'emselves. Say 'allo to yer mum and dad fur me!" cried Hagrid, waving one of his large, rough-skinned hands in my general direction. He'd been close friends with my parents ever since their first year at Hogwarts - they last time he'd met up with all three of them at the same time,was when his girlfriend, Olympe, and he had spilt up a few weeks ago. I still felt quite sorry for him about that - because really, how many half-giants was he going to meet?

I'd boarded one of the carriages, pulling itself as always, with Leanne and Mara, and then a few of our other friends - or 'entourage' as Lily referred to them - climbed in too. We were all chatting, laughing, exchanging holiday gossip, when I'd remembered Scorpius' note. My pocket now felt like it was filled with sixteen tons of lead instead of a thin piece of parchment that probably weighed less than a teaspoon on frogspawn. I couldn't help but wonder what he wanted to talk to me about.

_And if he says Holly from the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, I think I will honestly die._

Suddenly I remembered something else really important that I had to tell everyone right now.

"Guess who's been made captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team?" I said, grinning. The shrieks were instantaneous - Leanne and Mara hugged me at the same time, and everyone else started clapping and cheering. So that distracted me from the mystery of Scorpius. A bit.

Even so, the carriage ride seemed unusually long. I chatted along with everyone else, and tried to push Scorpius' note to the back of my mind. It sort of worked. Still, the moment the grand castle loomed into view I practically started jumping up and down with nervousness. Everyone else went really quiet. I looked round at them.

"What's wrong?" I asked, confused.

Sheila looked at me through her tears. "I just can't believe this is our last year here! It's so...unbelievable," she whispered.

"I can't believe we'll never have another first day of the year," Leanne sighed.

"I can't believe we won't see the Sorting next year," Willa murmured.

"I can't believe Mara has been on a date with James," Harriet whispered, smirking.

Then the mood was gone. Everyone started shrieking, and asking Mara all sorts of questions. Merlin, I don't think I've ever seen anyone blush so hard. A strange question came to my mind.

"Wait, James as in, my _cousin _James? Who left Hogwarts two years ago?" I asked, in utter disbelief.

Mara blushed. "I ran into him at Ollivander's about a month ago - we just started chatting and he asked me out. We had a really great time, and we're meeting up this weekend too. Please don't be mad, Rose! I know he's your cousin, but I really like him...but if it really bothers you I won't see him again," she whispered, looking as if she were making a great sacrifice. As soon as the words had passed her lips, there was a loud chorus of 'NO!' from everyone else.

I shook my head, my hair shaking as well. "If you met him a month ago and he hasn't left you yet, he must be pretty keen on you. Do whatever you want with him, I don't care - but only if you promise not to hurt him, or I will _crucio_ you," I answered. Mara breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that I was joking about the _crucio_ part. _Sort of_.

The carriage lurched to a sudden stop, and that lurch also brought Scorpius back to the forefront of my mind. I literally jumped off the carriage and started to sprint.

"Rose, were are you going?" cried Leanne.

"Tell you later! See you at the feast!" I yelled back, running as fast as I could. I realised halfway there that I probably shouldn't get all red and sweaty before meeting up with a boy - even if that boy was as annoying as Scorpius was. I stopped running suddenly and began walking, knowing how odd I must look.

I was one of the first up at the castle. As all the other students filed into the Great Hall, I walked off in the direction of the One Eyed Witch statue. I couldn't wait for him there, obviously - that would be pathetic - I'd just lurk behind a corner or something until Scorpius got there and had been waiting for at least five minutes. Then I'd come out from my hiding spot, cool and calm, and apologise for making him wait, like a normal person.

As I made my way to the statue, I couldn't help but feel sad that this was my last year at Hogwarts. This place was so familiar to me, almost like a second home, yet after July I would never come back here again, unless I became a teacher - _yeah, right_ - or died suddenly and haunted the castle like the many other ghosts around here. _I wonder what I'll be doing one year from now._

I was nearing the One Eyed Witch statue, so I slowed my walk right down and peered around the corner. Scorpius wasn't here yet, so I walked back to a nearby broom cupboard to wait. It was quite far away from the statue, which was good as it meant I wouldn't just appear from nowhere after the five minutes where up. Ducking inside, I left the door open a crack, so that I could see when he arrived and would know when to start timing the five-minute wait. In the meantime I reached into my robe pocket and pulled out my compact mirror. Flipping it open, I briefly paused, my hand hovering over my pocket where I kept my make-up. _Is Scorpius really worth all this trouble? _I considered. Looking back at all the things I done for this one meeting, I started to feel really stupid. I had abandoned by friends, sprinted half the distance to the castle, and now I was hiding in a cupboard. Normal. _How can someone as irritating as Scorpius turn me into a psycho? _

I decided might as well put on the make-up, as it would be something to do while I was waiting. And I might also brush my hair.

As I was fiddling with my eyeliner, I heard footsteps coming closer and closer. There he was, Scorpius, looking dashing in his emerald piped uniform, his hair falling adorably in front of his eyes, his lips looking eminently kissable...

_I did not just think all that, _I cringed. Peeping out, I saw that he was now leaning against the One Eyed Witch statue, looking relaxed. _Begin the five minute countdown, _I thought, as I applied some eyeshadow. _Oh for Merlin's sake, I do _not _care about Scorpius Malfoy. I do not care about Scorpius Malfoy. I do not care about Scorpius Malfoy._ I chanted this over and over in my head until I realised it had been five minutes and I better start walking. Quietly, I opened the cupboard door, and slowly clicked it back into place behind me. My head snapped up at the slight noise, afraid it had attracted Scorpius' attention. It hadn't - he was looking slightly anxious now, actually. I forced back a smile at his unease - it was quite funny to see Scorpius Malfoyunnerved.

I started walking towards him, casually but gracefully. _The truth is, I like the way he looks, but I don't like his personality, _it occurred to me. So there was no problem me being attracted to his looks, was there? Because then if he spoke, I would instantly be groaning, screaming, or hitting him over the head with a book - which isn't actually as rare as some may think. Shame really, to waste such good looks on such an infuriating person. As I came closer I saw Scorpius look up at me, and he grinned. I forced back a smile.

"Hey," he said, smiling the cool-guy smile.

"Hello," I answered, coolly. Thank Merlin the irritation he immediately gave me had come. I already wanted to kick him in the shins. "So what do you want to talk to me about?" I asked, rasing my eyebrows ever so slightly, leaning against the hard stone wall. Scorpius didn't stop smiling.

"Nothing much. I heard from Al that you were Gryffindor Quidditch captain this year," he offered, smirking.

I frowned, a little confused. "You dragged me over here via secret note just to say that you know I'm Gryffindor captain?" I asked.

Scorpius chuckled lightly. "Well, there is something else I might want to ask you," he said, suddenly serious, leaning towards me slightly. I took a step back from him.

"Ok, well, if you could ask it from further away that'd be good," I replied, speaking much louder than he had spoken.

Scorpius leaned back, pausing. "Have I ever offended you in some way?" he asked, suddenly.

I was caught off guard. _This is not what I was expecting._The temper that went with my hair suddenly flared. I was really struggling to remain calm. "I don't know, Scorpius. Have you? Or was it me that offended you? Because let me tell you, I sure don't know. I mean, we used to be friends. Then you started ignoring me, and acting aloof, and you wouldn't even tell me why!" I exclaimed. I didn't know where all this was coming from, yet I realised it had always been true.

Through my outburst, Scorpius remained silent. He looked completely neutral - like I hadn't said anything at all.

We stood in silence for a few seconds. The Scorpius tentatively walked over to my side, and lent against the wall. He was keeping his distance, though.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. I cast my eyes down, ashamed of my outburst, my temper gone.

"_Why, _Scorpius?" I whispered, wanting desperately to hear the real answer.

Scorpius shook his head slightly. I took that to mean he didn't want to give me an answer.

"Scorp, please. You can tell me," I said, lowering my voice.

Scorpius turned abruptly to face me. "No, I can't tell you! Don't you get it, Rose? You never offended me in any way! I really liked being friends with you, I did! It's just I couldn't...I didn't want...I wanted..." he trailed off, his voice quietening from the bellow it had been.

_"_I didn't know how to act around you," he continued, at a normal volume. "So I acted like a -", And Scorpius' use of language fails to impress me. But it was true. He did act like one. A _big _one.

And now he was in front of me. He had hold of my arms. He was standing right in front of me. Cautiously, I withdrew my arms from his grasp. He disregarded this.

"Can you forgive me?" he asked, solemnly. He looked in my eyes as if only they could tell him the answer. I didn't know how to react to this. It was so...sudden.

"Yes, I can. If you forgive me for every bad thing I've ever said to you." I whispered. Scorpius smiled, and there it was. Not his smirk, not his grin. His smile. And you couldn't get more perfect than that. I had that thought again, of curiousity of what it would be like to kiss him. I just stayed perfectly still. So did he.

"I'll walk you to the feast," he offered, running his hand nonchalantly through his hair, as if our exchange had been nothing at all. I wasn't sure if I was relieved or...disappointed. We began walking in silence, in the direction of the Great Hall. _I hope we haven't missed the Sorting._

Suddenly I was afraid. I had always admired Scorpius' looks, ever since I was old enough to appreciate them - but what now? I'd always been secretly grateful that Scorpius was an obnoxious brat, as it meant that my attraction to him way purely physical. But now he was being sweet. And really nice. If there was no maddening personality to keep me away from him then...

_Then what will stop me from falling for Scorpius Malfoy?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

"Come on, I'll take some of these books for you."

Scorpius and I were in almost every class together. Last year I would have been infuriated beyond belief. But now that he was nice, it was actually pretty cool. First off on Monday, we both had a free period - mainly a chance for us to sleep in - then we walked from Care of Magical Creatures to Herbology, where Professor Longbottom smiled at us as we walked in - it was no large secret that Herbology was an uncommon choice for NEWTs. From Herbology, Scorpius and I went to Charms, and then whilst Scorpius had a free period I went to Arithmancy, then we both had Transfiguration, then I went to Muggle Studies whilst he went to History of Magic, and finally we both had Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts. He secretly confided in me that he had wanted to continue with Muggle Studies, however his father had not permitted it.

Scorpius was so easy to talk to - funny, smart and sweet. I was thrilled that we were speaking again, and I had now long since gotten over my attraction to him. We had too good a friendship to ruin with all that. As we were walking to Herbology, Scorpius, who must have been carrying half my books as well as his, said casually "Do you want to meet up on the next Hogsmeade trip? There's one in a few weeks, I think."

I thought about it. _Wasn't there something else I had to do then...?_

"Oh, I'm sorry, I've already made plans with Mara and Leanne! We decided to try to get over to Oxford Street for a few hours," I sighed. Scorpius stopped walking, right in the middle of the bustling corridor.

"Oxford Street? The muggle shopping place?" he laughed, slipping through the crowds of people.

"Are you allowed that far away?" he asked.

"Probably not," I shrugged, "but we can all apparate now, so they can't exactly stop us. Besides, we'll be back before they even know we're gone. You won't tell on us, will you?" I whispered, suddenly afraid he might ruin this.

Scorpius shook his head. "No, I won't." he murmured, looking extremely pensive. We continued walking in silence, but an easy silence. As we neared Greenhouse Five, he finally said, "Well, how about the next trip?"

I looked up at him and smiled. "That sounds great," I agreed, as Professor Longbottom came to open the door for us.

For the rest of the day, I chatted to Scorpius during lessons, but I spent my lunch period with Mara and Leanne. Scorp had his friends, I had mine. We were both accustomed to that.

"So, how was it was James, Mara?" Willa asked, interrupting my train of thought.

"You met up with him again?" I asked. _James, going out with a girl more than once? Personal record for him._

Mara's blushed engulfed her entire face like a tidal wave. "Yes. He was really sweet, we went to the Three Broomsticks and then just went around Hogsmeade for a bit. He was being really considering, and he told me some pretty cool stuff. Rose, I'm sorry, but...I think I really like him!" Mara finished, in a whisper. I shrugged.

"Mara, it's fine. Really, I don't mind. If you two are happy I won't stop you," I sighed, irritated that everyone was making this seem so much more important than it really was.

"Speaking of boys," interrupted Sheila, "I saw you, Rose, and someone called Scorpius taking a little stroll the other day..."

_Sometimes I really could kill Sheila._ I rolled my eyes as the giggles and gasps bubbled and fizzed around the table.

"Scorpius?" choked Leanne, splattering her plate with the pumpkin juice that had been in her mouth.

"He just a friend guys," I sighed in exasperation, burying my head in my hands.

"That's what they all say, Rose! But really...Malfoy? Why not go for Kej, if you want a boyfriend? Holly told me he likes you," Harriet stated, looking as if if was no big surprise to anyone.

Kej Patel, in our year, was a Ravenclaw - he _was _good-looking, but he'd been home-schooled for five years in India, and had no idea how to talk to any witches or wizards his age. Nevertheless, he still managed to be popular, and had already dated Lily about a year ago. Leanne began talking.

"Yeah, why did you choose Malfoy as your boyfriend? I mean, he's good-looking, but he's still a Malfoy..."

"Scorpius is not and won't ever in a million years be my boyfriend!" I shrieked, loudly. Too loudly. There was silence at our table, and it took me a few moments to realise it was silence at every table. The entire Hall had gone silent upon hearing my declaration. All the way to the Slytherin table, where Scorpius was sitting. Staring right at me, and...was it my imagination, or was he looking lightly offended? Not even offended. Hurt. Genuinely hurt. As soon as he saw me looking at him, he abruptly stood up and walked briskly out of the Great Hall.

"Ok, Rose, we believe you," assured Mara, as the general chatter rose back up.

"It was just a bit of fun," added Harriet, "Although I wasn't joking about Kej."

I scowled at them. _Really, they're my friends, but sometimes they are so annoying._ Then I remembered Scorpius' face, and quickly rose and rushed out of the Hall, my robes whipping at my ankles behind me.

"Scorp?" I hissed. He couldn't have gone far yet. I had to apologise to him quickly, to explain the situation.

I leapt up the stairs, two at a time. "Scorpius?" I repeated. I couldn't see him anywhere.

"Gee, Rose, that was flattering. To hear a girl screeching that that she would never even consider go ing out with me really made my day," came a voice from behind me. I pivoted on the spot.

"Scorp, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that!" I pleaded, looking up into his dark green, inscrutable eyes. He smiled in a way that made me realise how deeply my words had cut him.

"You know what? Save it for someone else, Rose. Someone who maybe in a million years _will_ be your boyfriend," he muttered, starting to turn away.

_No! I don't want to lose him again!_

"Scorp, wait! Please!" I screamed, lunging forward to grab his arm. He started at my touch, and I too looked down at my hand in surprise. Slowly I removed my hand from him, my cheeks burning.

"Scorpius," I began, blushing furiously. "I really missed you when you stopped being my friend. I don't know why you feel that you can't tell me why you started to ignore me, but it doesn't matter!All that matters is we're friends again now, and I don't want to lose you again! Not over this, Scorp! Please?" I ended in a whisper. I knew as soon as I'd said the words how desperate, pathetic and cheesy they sounded, but the sad thing was that I meant every single word.

Scorpius' face became like a mask - something was hiding him. The real him.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he spoke. "Fine. We'll still be friends," he sighed, running a hand through his tousled hair.

I smiled in relief, then the guilt washed over me again. "I really am sorry, Scorpius," I muttered, looking down at my feet.

I heard him chuckle once. "It's fine. Really," he assured me, then ambled off without another word. I got the distinct impression it was not alright yet. I had to do something to really say sorry. We had Transfiguration next, maybe there was something I could do then to say sorry to him...

And that was when I got the most brilliant, stupendous idea of all time.

I had a whole lunch period before Transfiguration. I'd intended to spend it with Willa and Leanne revising Muggle Studies on the lawn, however all my plans were blown from my mind at the arrival of Lily.

"Rose, I need to talk to you right now," she blurted out, tossing her red tresses over her shoulder. Bewildered, I turned to look at Leanne and Willa, who were both grimacing, however Lily was already dragging me away from them by the arm. I snatched my arm out of her grasp, and instead walked beside her. She lead us up countless staircases, past Nearly-Headless Nick and ducking under one of Peeves' rat she finally arrived at our destination - a deserted corridor - she whipped round suddenly and began talking really quickly.

"Rose, I heard you screeching today that you would 'never date Malfoy in a million years'. Well, why would someone even think that you would? I mean, he was totally mean to you a couple years back, and then he got really weird about you from what Al tells me, so I was just wondering why you were squawking about Malfoy earlier?" Lily finished with a flourish.

I stared at her, fighting the urge to let my jaw drop or burst out laughing. I began calmly, forcing back a smile.

"First of all, Lily, his name is Scorpius, not _Malfoy_, and actually he's being nice to me again now, so we agreed to be friends. Harriet was just teasing me about the fact that she saw me and him walking to Potions together," I explained. Lily cast me an incredulous look.

"Rose, you know what his family did, right? How could you even think about being friends with him? Our parent's are, like, enemies with his parents. Don't even think about getting friendly with him! Now I've got to go, I'm meeting Matthew." she sighed, rolling her eyes. _I thought it was Andy now._ I turned to leave, but it turned out Lily wasn't done talking.

"Just promise me, Rose, that you won't hang out so much with Malfoy-"

"_Scorpius_!" I interrupted her to correct her on his name.

Lily shrugged. "Whatever! Just swear to me you won't hang around him so much anymore," she whispered. I raised my eyebrows, refusing to give a response. Lily threw her hands up in the air and stalked off, leaving me at the opposite end of the castle as I had been when I was with Leanne and Willa. Irritated, I began my descent back to the lawn.

_Who is she to tell me who I can and can't hang out with?_ I fumed. Really, she had no right. And she can talk - Andrew McLaggen, her latest boyfriend - or at least one of them - well, his father Cormac wasn't exactly the nicest person to our parents.

When I reached the lawn Leanne and Willa had already left for classes. Looking at the time, it occurred to me I had five minutes to get to Transfiguration. Five minutes before I really say sorry to Scorpius. _Because I don't care what Lily says - Scorp is a great friend, and I don't want to fight with him just because of his family._

I got into the Transfiguration classroom a few minutes late. Professor Hippelby was a rather strict teacher, so I lost a house point for tardiness. All the Gryffindors groaned, not at me, but at Hippelby's blatant preference for his own House, Hufflepuff. In fact, Henry Smith came in after me, and Hippelby left him off with just a warning. _So unfair._

Anyway, looking across the room at Scorpius, who was studying his book with a vigour I could never seem to muster for Transfigurations, I remembered I had work to do - work that had definitely _not _been set by Hippelby. I could do non-verbal spells now without any difficulty whatsoever, so I focused on Professor Hippelby's tweed hat. _Perfect opportunity for me to get my revenge about the house point._

Instantly, it was not a faded brown, tweed hat that sat upon Hippelby's head - it was a large barn owl, that made itself known by squawking loudly. Professor Hippelby looked up and squealed in surprise as the owl flew off his head and soared around the room. To the Gryffindor's delight, Hippelby toppled right off his stool and landed with a_ thump_ on the marble floor. Meanwhile, the owl was still soaring around the room. I checked that it had Scorpius' attention - sure enough, he was gazing at it in disbelief, grinning slightly. I waved my wand subtly, and the owl flew over to Scorp and landed on his shoulder. It nibbled his ear slightly, and with another wave of my wand, the owl said,

"Rose is sorry!" in my voice. Scorpius' head whipped up and he met my gaze. His face broke into a huge grin whilst I tried and failed to stifle a giggle with my hand. By now, Professor Hippelby was back up on his stool, so waving my wand again, the owl swooped back to his head, perched there, hooted softly and...with a tiny bit of spur of the moment brilliance, left its droppings on his head, before I transformed it back into a little hat. By now the entire class was in hysterics - nothing this good had happened since we'd seen Tom Fornseller transfigure one of his arms into a ferret! Professor Hippelby squealed again at the newest addition to his head, snatched his hat off, threw it across the room and, covering the owls 'leavings' on his head with both hands, ran for the bathrooms. It was ironic, really, but I couldn't help but laugh at how similar Hippelby sounded to the owl.

When Professor Hippelby finally returned from the bathrooms, he had no chance whatsoever at controlling his students. He tried, however everyone had seen him look utterly foolish, and that had diminished his authority somewhat. When the period was at last over, he was the first out of the room, leaving all of us with a good story to tell. Scorpius was by my side instantly.

"Why did you do that?" Scorpius chuckled, lifting a vast quantity of my book to carry himself.

I looked up at him. "I wanted to say sorry," I grinned.

Scorpius laughed again. "But I'd already said I'd forgiven you."

"Yeah, but did you actually mean it?" I grinned. Scorpius made a face that told me no, he hadn't meant it. "Also, I wanted a bit of revenge on Hippelby," I added, and this caused Scorp to grin again. Then I was serious. "Am I forgiven?" I asked, quietly.

Scorp chuckled. "Yeah, completely forgiven. And then some."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four:**

I got in trouble for turning Hippelby's hat into an owl. I lost another house point, and had to sit through an hour long detention transfiguring toothpicks into flobberworms for Hagrid's next class. I didn't mind though - Scorpius was waiting outside for me, and then he walked me back to the Gryffindor common room. We never ran out of things to say to each other - he was smart, funny, and actually interested in my life as well! I told him about my mum's promotion at the Ministry, my dad wanting me to get a big important job at the ministry - I even told him about Hugo having a huge fight with my mum about how he should be allowed to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas.

Scorpius told me things too. How his father and mother could barely look at each other these days, how he was worried about his NEWT Potions grade, how as Seeker and Captain for his house Quidditch team, he was certain that the Slytherins would lose their upcoming match...

My hand flew to my mouth, making my lips smart. "Quidditch! I completely forgot! I'm the Captain and I haven't done anything yet!" I shrieked, "Who's your next match against?" I asked, my words stumbling over each other.

"Ravenclaw," Scorpius said, almost robotically. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"If it had been Gryffindor I would have died," I exaggerated.

We had reached the Fat Lady by this point, and had just been standing outside, talking for about half an hour. I said a hurried good-bye to Scorpius, waiting an infuriatingly long time until I was sure he was out of earshot.

"_Mimbleweed_," I told the Fat Lady, who gradually and ungraciously swung open. I leaped though the portrait hole, grabbed a pen and paper and racked my head, trying to recall my timetable. I then hastily scribbled down a notice and pinned it to the noticeboard.

_Gryffindor Quidditch Trials:_

_Wednesday 4th October, 5pm on the Quidditch Field. _

_Contact Rose Weasley if you are interested._

Very quickly, a cluster of aspiring Quidditch players formed a mob around the sign. I played as a Chaser - I hadn't really wanted to be Seeker, that was Albus' job. He was good at Quidditch, actually. _I hope no-one will be better than him so I can have him on my team._

It suddenly struck me - how were Albus and Scorpius such good friends? I could see how they liked each other, obviously, but they were in different Houses, and were taking barely any of the same classes.

As I wondered about this, it occurred to me that a herd of my potential team-mates had realised that I was Captain of the Quidditch team this year, and had started pestering me about what to do for trials.

"Oh, um..." I began, not really knowing what to do. "Just come to the field at five if you're interested, like it says," I stammered, before rushing up to the girls dormitory to escape the flood of students that had threatened to engulf me.

Leanne and Mara were already up there, stretched out on the bright red four-poster beds.

"Rose, we heard that you turned Hippelby's hat into an owl today!" Leanne laughed, sitting upright when she saw me.

"We thought that it can't of been true, because you would never do something like that!" Mara giggled, mirroring her sister. I bit my lip, and tried to not look guilty. Their laughter was instantaneous.

"Oh, why, Rose? Why would you do that?" Mara choked out between giggles.

I shrugged. "I wanted to apologise to Scorpius about what I said in the Great Hall earlier," I muttered, shoving my books into my trunk, and sitting down on the edge of my bed.

I'd expected some taunts and giggles at what I'd just said, but I couldn't hear anything. Looking up, and trying to ignore the fact that I knew my face was bright red again, I saw Mara and Leanne wearing identical expressions, their mouths gaping.

It was Mara who spoke first, moving to sit next to me on my bed. "Rose, you have got to leave Scorpius alone! It's bad enough that he's a Slytherin, but...but he's a _Malfoy_!" she whispered gently, laying a hand gently on my arm.

"You, of all people, can't be seen with him! In _any_ way." Leanne chimed in, shaking her head so that her fair hair rippled down her back.

I frowned. "Why not? I mean, why can't I, of all people, be friends with Scorp?"

Leanne and Mara exchanged a glance. "Well, because of your parents, of course. They were enemies - they fought for the extreme of opposite sides in the Second Great Wizarding War," Leanne explained, like that was all I needed to know.

"We did you a favour in the Great Hall earlier today - he needed to know to stay away from you..." Mara continued, but I interrupted her.

"Wait, you did me a favour? Are you telling me that you tricked me into screaming my head off about Scorp?" I asked, furious with them.

Mara shook her head. "No, we didn't plan that part. Sheila told us she saw you and Scorpius hanging around each other a lot, and we were worried. We didn't want him to hurt you! So...so we planned telling you at lunch about why you shouldn't be friends with him," she muttered, hanging her head.

I couldn't believe my ears. We sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes.

"It's not up to you who I spend time with. I don't mind the fact that Mara is dating James! Leanne, I didn't say a word when you went out with Andrew McLaggen or Liam Jackson! So why do you feel you have the right to tell me what to do?" I hissed, getting off my bed and storming out of the dormitory. I passed through the common room without bestowing a glance upon anyone who greeted me - even Willa, whom I liked best among our group besides Mara and Leanne.

As soon as the Fat Lady had swung shut with a snap, I was lost. Where should I go? I couldn't roam the corridors at night, not without permission from a teacher...

_A teacher!_ I should go to see Hagrid. I hadn't visited him so far all year, and I really ought to. He was taking his break-up with Olympe much harder than he was letting on, and he didn't have many other friends.

I trod lightly, willing my footsteps not to be overheard by Filch or Mrs Norris. From what my mother told me, Mrs Norris had lived an extraordinary amount of years, and there was much speculation that someone had cast a spell on her that lengthened her lifespan. I sincerely hoped not - she was worse than Hippelby!

Dodging the places all students knew Peeves haunted on a regular basis, I made it outside the castle without so much as a dung-bomb on my head. It was a gusty night - my hair billowed and flapped about my face. I was just approaching Hagrid's when I noticed a figure running in front of me, next to the Forbidden Forest, their silhouette illuminated by moonlight. I would have walked past them, when the figure turned.

"Rose?" it said, ceasing to run. A tuft of blonde hair was lit by the moon, and I instantly recognised the person.

"Scorpius! What are you doing out here?" I said loudly, so that he could hear my voice over the howling wind.

Scorpius turned to face me. "Rose, get out of here!" he yelled, desperately.

"Why?" I replied, stepping towards him, nervous.

My answer came in the form of a scream from below. And then I couldn't leave. Not even if I wanted to. Because nothing, nothing in this world, could stop me from reaching my little brother.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five:**

The rest of the world seemed to move in slow-motion. I was in hyper-speed. Within a matter of moments I had sprinted past Scorpius.

"Wait, Rose! You don't know what's down there!" he had cried, yet his voice barely touched me, for another scream had pierced my ears.

I was running, my heart pounding, my head throbbing, my feet aching. I could see five pupils watching as one of them was lifted into the air by an ominous shadow...

I heard Scorpius calling Hagrid's name, and a bellowed response came from Hagrid's hut, but I paid them no attention. I needed to find Hugo, to help him, to stop whatever was hurting him...

He was an arrogant, angst-ridden teenager of a little brother. But he was still my little brother.

I was about fifty metres from the crowd when I realised what the dark shadow was, and why Scorpius had called for Hagrid. It was a host of Acromantula.

"Hugo!" I screamed, panting hard, as I sprinted the final stretch. The students turned at my voice, and I saw they were Hugo's gang. Knocking them aside, I dashed past, and stopped in front of the Acromantula.

"Rose!" Hugo yelled at me. I could see his face - injured, desperate and scared. More scared than 'd ever seen him.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" I shrieked, just as Hagrid came galloping down the hillside, Scorpius hot on his heels. Hugo flew out of the creature's grasp, yet was suspended, hanging in midair. I pointed my wand in the opposite direction to the giant spider, then as quickly as I dared, lowered him to the ground. I removed my wand to quickly, and he fell to the grassy floor with a hard _thump_. But I couldn't worry about him now. Because now it was just me versus a hoard of giant, blood-thirsty spiders.

"_Incendio_!" I yelled, causing one of them to burst into flames. It let out a tormented, agonised cry, a cry that would have made me feel bad for it if it had not just attempted to eat my brother. The spider stormed its way back to the forest, setting alight to another couple of spiders in the process.

"_Stupefy_!" I screamed. An Acromantula hit the ground hard, resulting in a mini earth-quake that nearly shook me off my feet. But I kept stunning. I stunned and stunned and stunned the spiders. One by one they hit the ground. One fell near me, it's pincers ripping at my flesh but I ignored it. I continued stunning and stunning and stunning...eventually I realised they had all fallen, and I was only mouthing the words, my wand still pointed, tears trickling down my face. But I couldn't stop. I knew there was one left, there had to be, one that would still come to hurt my brother. I couldn't let that happen, they all had to be stunned...

"Rose," whispered a voice from beside me. I turned as the owner of the voice embraced me, their arms around me, protecting me. I sobbed quietly into Scorpius's chest, my fingers resting lightly on the folds of his robes, his arms wrapped around me in such a way that made me realise there were no more Acromantula left, that I was really safe.

I stayed there, Scorpius holding me for a few seconds, before Hagrid's voice penetrated.

"Rose! Yeh need to come over 'ere! 'E's badly 'urt!"

My head snapped up out of Scorpius' arms. Hugo! How could I have forgotten?

Scorpius instantly let go of me, and I ran over to my brother. He was lying with Hagrid kneeling beside him, on a blanket of twigs and moss. His gang had formed a circle around him

"What's wrong with him?" I whispered, pushing past Dave and Kurt, as Hagrid began to lift him.

I laid a hand on Hagrid's arms, halting him. I had to see my little brother.

He was unconscious. His arms stuck out at an odd angle, and his face was battered - under the blossoming bruises, Hugo's skin was an unnatural white. There was a deep, long cut in his lower left arm, probably caused by an Acromantula's pincers, and his ankle appeared to have been broken.

Hagrid looked at me. "Rose, I need ter get 'im ter the 'ospital wing, an' fast," he told me, starting to stand up again.

"No, Hagrid," came a voice from beside me.

"What do yer mean, 'no'? Yeh can' tell me what ter do, Malfoy, I'm a ruddy teacher!" Hagrid bellowed at Scorpius.

I looked up at Scorpius, not being able to look at Hugo's face any longer. Scorpius looked solemn.

"Exactly, sir. Your a teacher. The Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Your the only one who could possibly get rid of these Acromantula, sir. By the time you get back from the Hospital Wing, theywill have woken up and could be running rampage around the grounds. Sir," Scorpius explained, looking Hagrid in the eye.

Hagrid paused, then grunted slightly. "All righ', yeh got yourself a poin' there. Who's gon' take 'im to the 'ospital Wing, then, if I'm off taking care o' those spiders?" Hagrid asked. Hugo's gang shrank back, not willing to carry their fallen ringleader.

Scorpius held out his arms. "I will. Now quickly, you said yourself, sir, we need to get him there fast!" He motioned to Hagrid to pass Hugo to him. Hagrid rolled Hugo in Scorpius' waiting arms. His knees buckled slightly, adjusting for Hugo's weight, but he was soon upright again. It was then I noticed the rippling muscle he seemed to be hiding under his robes.

Hagrid nodded. "All righ' then...er, ten points ter Slytherin. And twenty fur yer, Rose - fighting off a whole 'oard of Acromantula, blimey...yer not like yer dad when it comes ter spiders, I can tell yeh. Now, move i'! Get 'im there quickly, before these ruddy spiders wake up again!" he ordered, gesturing with his arms for us to move.

Scorpius moved as quickly as he could, but what with carrying a fifteen-year-old boy it wasn't all that fast. Faster than I could have done, though. I was still in a state of shock. Everything had happened so fast, I hadn't had time to process it all. A soft whimper escaped Hugo's lips. prompting us to move faster. The lights of the castle sparkled like stars in the night sky. Thankfully, the door was still unlocked, however Filch was roaming the doorway.

"Oy! Students out of bed! Students out of bed!" Filch screamed when he saw us, his greasy grey hair lying in rat tails down his crooked back.

"Move it!" Scorpius yelled, barging past him, bending his body to shield Hugo from Mrs Norris' claws.

"Don't talk to me like that, I'll have you expelled for this..." Filch started.

"Shut up!" I screamed at him, shoving him out of the way to keep up with Scorpius' strides. The blood was still oozing from Hugo's arm wound, and an unhealthy green pus was beginning to seep through his trouser leg.

Within a matter of minutes we were in the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey clasping a gnarled old hand to her chest when she saw the state of my brother.

"Oh my goodness...over here, quickly! Oh my...Mr Filch, summon Professor MacPhersonis! Quickly, you, fool!" she screeched, and Filch darted off, nimble for a man of his age, to find the Headmistress.

Scorpius laid Hugo down gently upon a starched white bed, making his wounds seem much more ghastly and infected under the bright light and in comparison to the cleanliness of the Hospital Wing.

I slumped down in a visitor's chair, watching Madame Pomfrey work over my brother. Scorpius sat down beside me, placing an arm around my shoulders, and without hesitation I leaned my head onto his shoulder. My leg hurt quite badly from where the Acromantula's pincers had clawed me, but I couldn't detract any time from my brother's treatment. He was in a far more dire situation than I was. Just then Professor MacPhersonis bustled in, still wearing her night-clothes and her hair all askew. Professor Longbottom bumbled in on her tail, his hair all rumpled and obviously barely awake. Until he saw Hugo. Then his weary eyes dilated in fear.

"Oh my goodness!" Professor MacPhersonis exclaimed, paling.

"Merlin's beard!" breathed Professor Longbottom, hastily tying his red dressing gown more tightly around himself.

"Miss Weasley, Mr Malfoy, what in Merlin's name has happened here?" Professor MacPhersonis asked. I opened my mouth, then closed it, without saying a word.

"Well, er...there was this, um...this spider, miss. No, um, not one...a whole, um...a whole hoard of them. They, er...they..." I stammered, not sure what to say. Scorpius stood up._ But not in the literal sense - in the metaphorical sense._

"Professor, I was returning to my common room when I heard some people whispering about going into the Forbidden Forest. I heard one of them mention the Acromantula, and how they were sure they could beat one in a fight. I became worried about these boys, because I knew about the incredible strength of the Acromantula, and so I rushed into my dormitory to retrieve my wand and then followed them out," Scorpius explained. I looked up at him. You couldn't doubt him - he was wearing the sincerest and most honest face you could possibly imagine. Scorpius continued.

"I was running to find the boys, when I saw Rose heading down in the same direction, so naturally I was concerned for her well-being. I told her to run, but it was here that one boy let out a terrible shriek, and I instantly knew they'd found the Acromantula. Rose ran off towards the boys, and I know now that it was because she recognised her brother's voice. I ran over to Hagrid's to ask him to help with the Acromantula, as he is an excellent authority on the creatures, miss. He followed me down to where the fight was taking place. There I saw Rose levitate her brother out of an Acromantula's clasp, and then set one on fire, and then she began stunning every single Acromantula in sight," he paused to look down at me. I was shivering with recall, as Madame Pomfrey continued her work over my brother.

"She performed quite outstanding, professor, by any standards. She tackled an entire hoard of Acromantula and emerged practically unscathed. When I reached her, she had knocked out every single spider in sight, and then we went over to see her brother. He was badly hurt, professor, and we understood that he would need immediate treatment. I offered to bring him over here, as I could see Hagrid would need to dispose of the Acromantula whilst they were still unconscious, as he was the best equipped for the job, since he's the Care of Magical Creatures professor. Rose and I then rushed up to the castle, where we immediately came here to get help for Hugo. And now here you are, and here I am telling you why we're all here at this late hour."

Scorpius ended quietly. There was a moment of silence in which the Professors digested the news. Then Professor MacPhersonis spoke. "Neville, if you will be so kind as to fetch Albus and Lily Potter, and send an owl to the Weasley family. They should be informed of what has happened to their family," she murmured. Professor Longbottom bobbed slightly, then hobbled out of the room - not because he was injured, but simply because he was uncoordinated.

Scorpius sat down next to me again, and once again put his arm around my shoulders. I, too, laid my head again on his arm. MacPhersonis pursed her lips, but said nothing. My eyes fixed on my brother, never shifting my gaze even by an inch.

We sat in a still sort of quiet for a minute. Professor MacPhersonis sat down in a chair near to Hugo, and we remained in an almost silence, only occasionally interrupted by Madame Pomfrey, until Professor Longbottom returned, with Albus and Lily in tow. Scorpius discreetly edged away from me at the arrival of my cousins.

"Oh my Merlin!" Lily cried, covering her face with her hands, pale. Albus said nothing, but just walked over to Hugo in a trance. After a few seconds of silence, Lily whispered, "Rose what happened?"

"Acromantula," I murmured, staring at my brother's pale face.

Lily raised a perfectly plucked eyebrows, and evidently this was not enough.

"He was attacked by Acromantula," I whispered, tears coming to my eyes again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Scorpius twitch in my direction, as if fighting the urge to come closer to me, yet he froze under the sudden glare of Albus.

"Why are you here, Scorp?" Albus asked, confusion clouding his face.

Scorpius' eyes flitted over to me briefly, before he recounted the story again. I tuned most of it out, not wanting to relive it again. When Scorpius was finished, Albus let out an awed gasp.

"That would have been unbelievable if I couldn't see all you guys here now! But Rose, what were you doing out of bed?" Albus asked. It took a moment for me to realise he was actually talking to me.

"Yes, Miss Weasley, what were you doing out of bed after hours?" Professor MacPhersonis chimed in.

My gaze flickered from one person's expectant gaze to another. I waited for Scorpius to jump in and save me again, however then I remembered that he didn't know either.

"I was..." I began.

"She were comin' ter see me, Professor MacPhersonis," came a booming voice from the doorway. I turned, relieved to see Hagrid standing there, taking up most of the entrance. MacPhersonis frowned.

"To see you, Rubeus? Whatever for, at this time of night?" she whispered.

"She were comin' ter give me sum flobberworms she transfigured fur me durin' a detention earlier tonigh'. She knew I needed to 'ave 'em before tomorrow's lesson, see," Hagrid said, shuffling slightly from foot to foot. MacPhersonis frowned again.

"And where are these flobberworms?" she asked pointedly.

"I lost them whilst I was fighting the Acromantula. They'll have run off by now, miss, they don't like to stay in the same place for very long," I jumped in, cutting off whatever Hagrid had been about to say. I saw Hagrid's face twitch, and I instantly knew I was wrong about the runaway flobberworms, but I was relying on Professor MacPhersonis' virtual non-existence of knowledge of flobberworms to keep my alibi still plausible. Then again, I suppose I was going to see Hagrid - I just don't think the fact that I was going over there to comfort him about Olympe would have been an acceptable reason for being out of bed.

MacPhersonis hesitated, then said, "Well, I suppose if what everyone is saying is true, then you are quite the hero, Miss Weasley! Many who tackle an Acromantula would not live to tell the tale, and here you are, with proof of having defeated an entire host of them! And you, Mr Malfoy, although it was rather rash of you to tail those young boys, you most certainly had a hand in saving Mr Weasley's life!"

"I've, er, already awarded sum 'ouse points ter them, Professor," Hagrid chimed in, raising a grimy hand. "Oh, an' those Acromantula are tucked away in the forest again, near ter their colony," he tacked on.

MacPhersonis looked at Hagrid. "Yes, quite..." she murmured, "I'd like to award these two some house points of my own, Rubeus," she said, sharply, "To Mr Malfoy, I award twenty points for his bravery and willingness to protect others, although I detract five from that number for being out of bed," she said, raising her eyebrows slightly. "And to Miss Weasley I award thirty-five points, for outstanding courage in the face of adversity, although again detracting five for being up after hours," she announced.

Madame Pomfrey had crept up behind Professor MacPhersonis. "No more than six visitors at a time, I'm afraid," she whispered, before dashing back to Hugo. Professor MacPhersonis stood up at once.

"I shall take my leave now, someone needs to be there to greet the Weasleys when they arrive," she muttered, sweeping out of the Hospital Wing without another word.

Fifty house points in one night. Any other time I would have been thrilled, yet I had more pressing thing on my mind right now.

I racked my brain, trying to think of time I had spent with Hugo this year. With a stab of guilt, I realised our lives had passed by each other like parallel lines. I had barely said two words to my own brother this year...but I had saved his life, so maybe that balanced out.

Suddenly, a sigh of relief passed through Hugo's lips, breaking the silence, and Madame Pomfrey stood upright again, rubbing her back.

"There now, I've done all I can for him so far. He'll have to spend a while recuperating here, but thankfully he'll mostly be unconscious now, with the pain dulled considerably," she paused to register our expressions, "I would suggest you all go to your beds now. It is very late, and there'll be nothing to see until morning at the earliest..."

"No!" I screamed, standing up so quickly that the chair nearly fell over. Scorpius stood up a moment after me when he saw Madame Pomfrey's expression.

"Please let them stay, at least until their family gets here," he murmured, placing a hand on my back, just at the tips of my hair, guiding me back down to my seat. Lily pouted at Scorpius' hand on my back, but this time didn't say anything. Albus, however, began to go red.

Madame Pomfrey hesitated, then nodded curtly. I would have liked to curl up in the chair and go sleep, or rest my head on Scorp's shoulder again, but something told me that this wouldn't bode well with Albus. Or Lily, for that matter.

We all sat there for a bit. Occasionally Scorp would break the silence by asking Albus a random question, to which Albus would reply with a one-word answer. Professor Longbottom asked Hagrid once if he was going to the Weasley's Christmas party - Hagrid had responded with the fact that he had nothing else to do, and it would be a nice catch up. When asked the same thing, Professor Longbottom had replied that he and his wife, Hannah, were already planning to go abroad for Christmas. Lily started crying quietly after an hour, but she wouldn't tell us if it was because of Hugo or something else. As for me, I couldn't believe how much Hugo's life had slipped by me this year. I'd known he was going through a rebellious phase, yet had never dreamed it would come to this! I'd barely even spoken to him for a month - my own brother! If I'd known, would I have been able to prevent this? His face had regained some colour, and his arm was no longer bleeding, though it was looking a rather inflamed red. His auburn hair stood out against the white pillow his head was resting on, and in sleep he looked so young, so innocent. I couldn't believe he'd tried to tackle an Acromantula!

In the early hours of the morning, we heard footsteps outside, and sure enough Professor MacPhersonis shuffled into the Hospital Wing, closely followed by my parents.

My dad was my Hugo's side in an instant, bright red in the face.

"Blimey, Rose! What in the name of Merlin's left..." he cut off when he saw Mum's face, disapproving under her fear. "What in the name of Merlin happened to him?" he continued, slowly, his face pale.

"He was attacked by Acromantula," I whispered.

"Why?" Mum breathed, walking in a dream-like state over to her son.

I shrugged. Then I heard Dad catch his breath.

"What's he doing here?" he muttered darkly. I looked up to see his glare directed at Scorpius, who inched away from me.

"Ron..." warned Mum, laying a hand on Dad's arm. He brushed her off. "Ron, we're here for our son," she whispered, trying to distract him.

"Hagrid had to get rid of the Acromantula, so Scorpius carried Hugo all the way up here," I whispered, turning to look at Scorpius, who surprisingly had turned a violent shade of magenta.

"Yeah, and Scorp's my friend. He's just being nice," Albus added, punching Scorpius lightly on the shoulder.

Dad froze slightly, then sighed and turned back to Hugo. Madame Pomfrey slipped up beside us.

"Again, no more than six visitors at a time," she ordered. Hagrid stood up to leave, and so did Professor Longbottom. Mum turned to face them.

"Hagrid, please stay. I know how much it must have upset you to have to deal with the Acromantula since...since Aragog...passed. You must have been brave to sacrifice that deep connection you have with the colony to help our son. And Neville, you really didn't have to come...you must have been woken up in the middle of the night to just see Hugo," Mum whispered. Professor Longbottom shook his head.

"No trouble. You two are some of my closest friends, and I know that if Hannah and I had a son who'd been injured, you would have done the same," he replied.

"An' Hugo...Hugo's like family ter me. Yeh all are," Hagrid whispered, drawing himself up to his full height, which caused his bushy, straggly hair to brush against the ceiling.

Professor MacPhersonis stood. "I think it's time the students returned to their beds. We permitted them to stay up only until you two arrived, as we felt that Mr Weasley should have some family present," she explained. Mum looked up, as if suddenly noticing the Headmistress' presence.

Dad looked up at me. "Oh, and James is on his way. He was in the area anyway, and once he heard about Hugo..." Dad trailed off.

I nodded, as Lily and Albus smiled at each other at the prospect of seeing their brother again. _Was he in the area with Mara?_ I rose, briefly hugged Mum, and Dad then left the Hospital Wing with Lily, Albus and Scorpius, escorted by Professor MacPhersonis.

"Now, off to bed. You have lessons tomorrow, as usual," MacPhersonis instructed, pointing us up the stairs. As soon had she had returned into the Hospital Wing, Albus turned to Scorpius.

"Scorp, can I ask you about something?" he said, pointedly. Scorp shrugged, then headed off in the direction Albus had just walked off in.

"Bye," I whispered, as Lily and I began our ascent to Gryffindor common room. For a while we didn't speak. Just before we reached the Fat Lady, Lily broke the silence.

"You know, Rose, maybe I was wrong about Scorpius. I mean, he's still a Malfoy, of course, but he does seem genuinely sweet. And so into you," she added with a grin. I raised my eyebrows at her, at the Fat Lady loomed into view.

"Lily, even if Scorpius and I were going out, which we aren't, do you really think this is the time to discuss it?" I asked, incredulously, and Albus caught up with us.

"_Mimbleweed_," he said, panting.

"What sort of time do you call this?" yawned the Fat Lady, as she swung open.

"What did you want to talk to Scorpius about?" I asked. Albus looked at me, and...was it my imagination, or was he scowling at me slightly? I took this to mean I wouldn't get an answer.

That night, as I lay in bed, I thought about what Lily had said. _Scorpius seems sweet, and 'so into me'. _It was only the next morning that I realised I should have been thinking about my brother.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six:**

Hugo spent a lot of time asleep. I supposed that was better for him. When he was conscious he was incoherent, mumbling and muttering things that didn't make sense. Mum and Dad had booked a room at the Three Broomsticks until Hugo got back up on his feet. Madame Pomfrey said it would be a couple of weeks until he ceased slipping in and out of consciousness, however after that it should be all clear.

I'd expected Scorpius to come and visit Hugo with me, yet strangely I was barely seeing him these days. It had taken a while for me to realise that the night I fought the Acromantula, Scorpius had acted in a _more _than friendly way towards me. Even Lily and Albus had noticed it, but I hadn't - I'd been so worried about Hugo. I'd wanted to ask Scorpius about it, however even though we still shared a lot of classes, we were never spending time together anymore. As soon as the lesson was over, Scorp would be the first one out of the room, never waiting for me and helping me with my books like he used to. I couldn't tell him how much this upset me - I'd lost my friend for the second time.

I had enough to keep me busy, though. Quidditch trials were tonight, and I was hoping to get a half decent team together before our first match. My dad had been on the Quidditch team as a Keeper when he was at Hogwarts - according to Uncle Harry, he'd been slightly unreliable as a player, and one time my uncle had even convinced him that he'd taken Felix Felicis before a big match! The Keeper was an important position though, and personally I wanted someone who you could trust to keep the Quaffle away consistently.

As I pulled on my Quidditch uniform, I heard footsteps approaching, and voices. The dormitory room swung open, and there were Mara and Leanne. I looked down at the floor, wishing I hadn't tied up my hair so that it could hide my face from them - I knew my skin had been engulfed in a deep blush.

We stood awkwardly for a few moments before Leanne spoke.

"Listen, Rose, I'm sorry about what I said. I heard what happened with Hugo, and how Malfoy -" here Mara elbowed her firmly in the ribs. "I mean, Scorpius, came to help you, and I - we," here again another sharp elbow protruded into Leanne's ribcage, "thought that maybe we misjudged him," she trailed off, staring out of the window at the faded blue-grey light that came just before sunset. I looked up at them.

"Mara, are you still seeing James?" I whispered, turning around to pick up my red robes up off my unmade bed.

"Yes. I saw him yesterday, and I'm seeing him tonight," she replied, tossing her head back.

I turned back to face them. "Even if I were going out with Scorpius, which I'm not, you would have no right to stage an intervention. I have every right to do that with you and James, Mara, but I'm not going to. That isn't what friends do. I was happy being his friend, just as Mara's happy going out with James. I'm not going to stand in their way," I mumbled, lifting my broomstick up and preparing to head down to the pitch, when Mara held out her hand to block the door.

"Do you really think you're going to pick a Quidditch Team without us there to tell you who's hit on Lily?" she smiled. I grinned back at her, glad our fight was over. Leanne was grinning too. We headed down to the Quidditch pitch the way we had in our first year - linked arms, smiling, giggling girls.

By the time I got down there, a large crowd had already assembled, and the sheer density of the broomsticks made it look like a huge wooden ocean, with scarlet fish leaping out of it. I saw Mara and Leanne sit down in the stalls just as I organised the team hopefuls into the positions. There were fifteen potential Chasers, eighteen Seekers, fifteen Beaters and eleven optimistic Keepers. Thankfully Albus had turned up as a hopeful Seeker, which meant there was a chance I could have him on my team.

Firstly, I made them all do a lap of the pitch, to check they could fly. Three couldn't even get their brooms to hover, and another six crashed at different points around the pitch. I quietly but firmly told them no.

I tested the Chasers first. I put them into groups of three and just had them passing the Quaffle. In one group of second-years, two of them couldn't lift it, and another threw it into her teammates head. Soon after their trial, that group was heading back up to the castle. The other candidates could all play at least, however instead of catching the Quaffle, one weedy looking boy simply covered his face with his hands. Shooting was a problem as well - a fifth-year girl Aphelia, a friend of Lily's, hit the ball so violently a bit of the goal post flew off lodged in the Quaffle when she missed. I couldn't help thinking that Aphelia might make a good beater, and told her to try out for Beater later on. In the end I got my Chasers, though - Hepiliya Jones and Jonathan McAdams. Hepiliya could catch the Quaffle from the other end of the pitch, and Jonathan never missed the goal.

Next I divided up the Beaters into pairs. Aphelia had decided to join in and try for Beater, which meant that there were an even number of candidates. Three of the pairs, all third-years, had never picked up a bat in their lives, and were swinging them round wildly. I was reminded by them of the time we went round to Luna Scamander's for Sunday Lunch, and halfway through the meal she had started doing the same thing, doing - what she called - 'beating off a Wrackspurt'. One fourth-year hit the ball with as much force as a locust, and looked so pleased with himself that he didn't notice it soaring back to him - when it hit the broom he was knocked to the ground from a few feet in the air. The two I choose in the end were Lily's friend Apehlia Clarke and Aaron Cooke - Aaron was toned and tall, whilst Aphelia lean and willowy, however both could hit with surprising force.

Then for the Keepers, I tested them by themselves. Six of them let all five balls through, and another three only saved one. In fact, this time there was one truly outstanding player - Sam Taylor. He seemed so in tune with his broom, it was hard to tell who moved first. He could sense every nuance of the Chaser's subtle movements, and would always be there waiting for the Quaffle at the correct hoop. I didn't hesitate to choose him.

I'd saved the Seekers for last deliberately. Albus didn't seemed scared, but certainly on edge and uneasy. I really hoped he was the best there. I had all the other players take their positions, then tested each one methodically. The other players would try to create a diversion, and the ones who could look past that to find the fake Snitch I'd hidden somewhere in the pitch could get through to the next stages. Only six of them could actually find the ball, and one boy in my year ended up slapping Hepiliya. Thankfully, Albus was one of the six who made it through.

For the next stage, I had all the potential Seekers land, then had my owl, Sera, a tiny chestnut brown owl I'd been given for my seventeenth birthday, fly high into the air. Whoever could catch her and bring her down safely - in the best condition and shortest amount of time - would be Seeker. A second-year girl went first. She was amazing for her age - could have been down in five minutes flat - but released Sera three times as she'd though she was hurting her. In the end she took twenty minutes to come down. Still, this girl wasn't to be ignored. Two sixth-years went after her. One had her down in under fifteen minutes, yet had accidentally let go of her four times. The other one took as long as the second-year girl, however was consistently bumping into the team, whom I'd instructed to play above to obscure Sera from view. One third year boy was hopeless - he could dodge the team like a bullet, however spent so long attempting to find Sera that I have to eventually call him down and insist his trial was over. A boy in my year, Orphis, had brought her down in seven minutes exactly, however upon closer inspection her wing had been injured, and he admitted to pinching her beak to stop her 'infuriating squawking'. That left Albus - I'd been dreading this. If I couldn't choose him, I'd have to choose either Orphis, whom I hated with a passion, or the second-year girl Lucy Tomlinson. Both were good, yet neither were perfect.

I needed have worried. Albus shot up there, and I lost him from view for five minutes, then suddenly there he was, hurtling after Sera towards the ground at an extraordinary speed. All the others turned away, anticipating a crash, yet he pulled up at the last minute, with Sera calmly snuggled in his hand. He strolled casually towards us, handed Sera over to me as I told everyone that Albus was our new Seeker.

Leanne rushed down to the field. "Brilliant!" she squealed, hugging me. "We're going to thrash the Hufflepuffs in the match next month!"

I laughed, secretly thinking this was very true. "Where's Mara?" I asked.

"Oh, she had to leave for her date about when you were halfway testing the Beaters," Leanne waved her hand nonchalantly. I saw that Aaron Cooke was beginning to walk away.

"Hold that thought," I rushed, running over to the centre of the pitch. "Everyone!" I called, beckoning them to come into me. They were all there almost instantaneously.

"Well, well done for making the team. Great flying, honestly. Our first practice is this time next week. Any problems?" I asked. The entire team shook their heads in firm unison. "Great! Well...have a good week!" I smiled, waving them off cheerfully. I'd thought they'd all gone when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning round, I saw Sam Taylor standing behind me, his dark brown hair waving in the breeze.

"Hey," he said, nodding at me. I raised my eyebrows.

"Hi...?" I replied, confused.

"Do you want to go out sometime?" he drawled, looking me in the eye. I was stunned. One, that he wanted to go out with me, and two that he was acting so casually about it. Before I could reply he continued talking.

"I was thinking maybe, Friday night, you and I could just head down to the Hogs Head, grab some Butterbeers..." he trailed off. I realised this was my time to give an answer. There was a mini war raging in my head. If Sam and I got together and it didn't work out it would mess up my Quidditch team, and also I didn't like him in that way. But I did need to get experience in that area...

Then I saw something that made up my mind. My mind was made up one hundred percent, resolutely and definitely.

"I'd love to. Meet you there at eight o'clock?" I simpered, like I'd seen Holly do so many times.

Sam nodded, then walked away, and Leanne came rushing up to me. She started firing questions at me at a rapid pace. I _mmm'_edand _yeah'_ed, at her until one question.

"So what made you say yes to him?" she had asked.

I turned to look at her, a glimmer of a frown on my lips. "There was just something there that made me say yes."

And there had been. The something had been the sight of Scorpius staring at us coldly from the stands.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven:**

Hugo woke up properly on the next Friday morning. Hagrid was sent to fetch our parents from their room at the Three Broomsticks whilst Professor Longbottom kept Lily, Albus and I company at Hugo's bedside. Lily and Albus had had a fight the previous night, and there was a tangible tension in the air. They wouldn't tell me what it was about, so I kept my nose out of their business.

Hugo refused to speak about the Acromantula until Mum and Dad arrived. Instead he moaned about how unfair Madame Pomfrey was, how much work he had to do, and how mean it was of our parents to not let him stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. Lily and I exchanged looks, as if to say;

_Same old Hugo._

Mum and Dad barged through the door, and were by Hugo's side instantaneously. Mum threw her arms around Hugo.

"Why?" she breathed, burying her face in his hair. Hugo pushed her off, and propped himself up on his elbows. He frowned at her, uncomprehendingly.

"What did you fight the spiders for?" Dad muttered, gazing at Hugo. For the first time in years, Hugo blushed, and looked ashamed.

"My friends, well..." he began, but Mum interrupted him.

"Oh no, Hugo tell me it wasn't something your friends had done so you had to do too!" she hissed. Hugo shook his head, blushing deeper. "No. My friends were talking about, well...what you did with Uncle Harry when you were at Hogwarts, and how you were all so brave and adventurous. Dave teased me that I couldn't be anything like you. So I told them to come and watch me fight off a hoard of Acromantula. You were always doing stuff like that, and I just wanted to prove myself too," he muttered, shamed.

Mum shook her head, hand pressed to her cheeks and her skin white. "No, Hugo, you mustn't think like that. We never did any of that for fun, they were some of the hardest, most difficult days of our lives, and we lost..._so _many dear friends. We would never let that happen to you," she whispered, clutching Hugo's face in her hands. Dad shook his head, too.

"Yeah, and you know me. I'd never have gone anywhere near the spiders," he added, chuckling. Mum had looked up at him, disapprovingly, but something in Dad's expression made all of us suddenly start laughing. Then Madame Pomfrey told us to go off to our lessons, and we needed to let Hugo rest with his parents for a bit. Professor Longbottom had to leave too, as he had a class of fourth-years to teach. We all left Mum and Dad alone with Hugo, and it was only then that I remembered I was going on a date that night.

At the end of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Scorpius approached me, looking vaguely scared.

"Rose, can we talk?" he whispered to me. Even though my heart starting beating wildly, I forced myself to only raise my eyebrows, and continue packing my books up. _Don't look at him, don't look at him, don't look at him..._

"I don't know there's anything to talk about. You clearly don't want to be my friend anymore, and I won't force you to be,"I hissed back at him, the bitterness of anger mingled with sadness on my tongue. Scorpius winced.

"No, I...I want to be...Rose, I just..." he stuttered, sounding troubled. _Don't look up, don't look up..._

"It's fine. I really couldn't care less. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to the Hogs Head tonight," I spat at him, not hiding my anger at him. I wished he hadn't made me feel like this. I was angry and...and something else too, that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I strutted out of the classroom, flicking my red tresses over my shoulder and I stalked out of the door, leaving Scorpius behind.

As soon as I got to the dormitory and sat down on my bed, I realised I had no idea what to do. I needed to choose what to wear, to choose my make-up - and I didn't know how to do any of this. I had never really needed to before. One time in my fourth-year I went out with Josh Kipplet, who'd been in the year above me, but with that he'd just picked me up after the Quidditch match we were playing against Ravenclaw, so I hadn't had time to change out of my Quidditch Robes. I think I'd felt more attracted to Josh, yet this time there was something setting me on edge, making my spine shiver, my arms become covered in goose-bumps. _Maybe it's because Sam's in my year, so I know him better than I knew Josh. Or maybe I just liked Josh more._

I decided to dress casually, as if I were just sneaking into Hogsmeade like any other day. Technically, we weren't allowed out today, but I could get Hagrid to escort me down, and Sam would just get there somehow.

I pulled on some tight jeans and an old Quidditch jumper, that I'd customised. I'd cut the neckline so that it was a deep V-neck, and then it was shrunken so much that it was very fitted to my figure. I left my hair loose, but I did brush it. When it came to the make-up, I only used eye-liner, mascara and lipgloss - I'd never much liked eyeshadow or blush ever since they had exploded in my face as a result of a prank by Hugo, and foundation never stayed on me. I didn't bother with the mirror, so I just headed down into Hogsmeade. Getting out of the castle wasn't hard, and Hagrid was more than happy to walk me down to Hogsmeade, after establishing that the story would be that I was picking up some dragons hide gloves that he didn't have time to collect himself. I didn't ask him about Olympe - I could see the loneliness he buried in his beetle-eyes.

I walked myself down to the Hogs Head. It wasn't as nice as the Three Broomsticks, but it was more secluded, more private. Checking inside first, I saw Sam had already seated himself. I decided to wait two minutes, just to make sure he'd waited for me for five minutes as per my usual rule. When it was time for me to go inside, Sam's eyes lit up, and suddenly I saw a different side to him - still Sam Taylor, but one with emotions too. This was disconcerting.

Sam ordered the Butterbeers, and a pumpkin pasty each, then we began our conversation. I started by asking when he'd started playing Quidditch.

"Well, I was raised in Switzerland, and I loved getting a broom and flying over the mountains and all that near my chalet, and eventually my sister began teaching me Quidditch, and I discovered I really liked playing Keeper. Thanks for picking me for the team, by the way, I never said," he added, smiling slightly. I smiled back at him, not really forcing it.

"Well, you were the best out there. So, if you lived in Switzerland, when did you move over here?" I asked, puzzled slightly. Sam raised his eyebrows.

"I didn't move. I only come here for school. Every holiday I go back to Switzerland to be with my family. My sister didn't come here, she got accepted to Beauxbatons," he added, tilting his head slightly.

I nodded, remembering everything Aunt Fleur had praised so heartily about Beauxbatons. "So do you speak another language then? If you live in Switzerland?" I asked, trying to imitate the way Holly from Ravenclaw looked when she talked to boys. Sam laughed, but in a deep, mature way.

"_Vous avez de jolis yeux,_" he whispered. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"It's very good, but I don't speak French," I murmured, gazing at him.

"_You have pretty eyes,_" Sam smiled, looking at me. I grinned at him.

"Keep talking,_" _I laughed, not dropping my gaze even when the food and drink arrived.

"_Vos cheveux sont magnifiques, et vous aussi. Vos cheveux sont comme le feu danse chaque fois que vous déplacez. Je vous aime plus que vos cheveux,_" Sam whispered to me. I laughed quietly, not understanding him. We carried on chatting, eating, him speaking French until maybe ten o'clock. Then we both stood up to go. Sam saw I didn't have a coat, and offered me his. I'd never worn a boy's coat before, and it was very cold by now, so I took it gratefully. He walked with me up to the school, and continued talking. He seemed nice, but he seemed to only talk about either Quidditch or Switzerland. In nice ways, but it did get a little boring after a while.

We were at the gates. I turned to say good-night to Sam, when he caught my shoulder. He hesitated, then leaned in and kissed me.

I should have felt something. This warm, fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach that Leanne is always going on about, the fun that Willa says it is, or even the longing that Lily seems to associate with kissing. All I knew what that Sam's lips were very hot, and he should probably drink some water later - but not now, as his arm around my back was keeping my warm. He was kissing me for about five seconds, then he pulled back. I hadn't really wanted him to carry on any longer, but I was suddenly scared that I was bad at kissing. The fact that he smiled straightaway seemed like a good sign.

We didn't talk as we walked up to the common room. He kissed me again briefly just before I went upstairs, then we both went to bed. That night I lay in my bed thinking. I supposed it had been a nice night. Of course I'd kissed before. I'd kissed Daniel Gammelway when I was twelve, and in my fourth year I'd kissed Josh. But this time it had been different. I think maybe it was because I'd been certain about how I felt for the others. Daniel and Josh I had definitely liked. But Sam...sometimes I thought I liked him, sometimes I just really didn't know. Right now I really didn't know. I'd have to define my feelings though - I wasn't the kind of girl to lead a guy on.

The next morning I deliberately avoided Sam. I knew we didn't have any classes together, so that was good, but I avoided him at breakfast. When he walked into the Great Hall, I turned my back to him, and thankfully he didn't come over. I rushed out of the Hall and down to Care of Magical Creatures as quickly as possible. When I arrived, I was early. There was only one other person there. _Oh, no._ Scorpius.

Scorpius whipped round to see me. "Did you have a nice time at the Hogs Head?" he snapped, looking angry. I frowned, blushing.

"What do you mean?" I asked, folding my arms, not meeting his glare.

"I mean, who did you go there with?" Scorpius demanded, taking a step towards me. I backed away.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I was there with Sam. Sam Taylor," I replied, curtly.

"Bet you had a brilliant time with _Sam,_" Scorpius said, in a pathetic imitation of my voice. I paused before replying.

"Scorp, what are you doing?" I sighed, looking at him. Scorpius' nostrils flared once.

"I'm not doing anything, Rose. No, I'm not the one going for secret dates and kissing at the gates!" he hissed back. There was something odd about what he said.

"How do you know that I kissed Sam?" I murmured, staring firmly at the floor. Scorpius didn't reply. "Scorp, did you follow me?"

"I came down to the Hogs Head, yes. I wanted to make things up with you, and I knew you were going to be there because you'd told me. Then what do I see? You on a date with some guy, kissing and laughing with him, and then I get stuck outside Hogwarts, so I need to wait for you to finish your date so I can even get to bed!" he belted at me. Tears came to my eyes.

"Scorp, why can't we be friends? I mean, I went on a date! Big deal, we can still be friends..."

"I _don't _want to be _friends!_" Scorpius yelled at me, his usually ghostly pale face bright red. There were tears in his eyes.

"Scorpius," I whispered, extending my hand towards him. But it was too late - Scorpius was already storming back off in the direction of the castle.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight:**

What with Sam and Scorpius I'd completely forgotten about the scheduled trip to Hogsmeade this weekend. This was when Leanne, Mara and I had planned on going to Oxford Street. It was all set - we'd tell Sheila we were going to Honeydukes, meet Willa there and tell her we were going to Zonkos, then meet Harriet there and tell her we were going back to the castle. Then we'd just leave and no-one would worry. _This is going to be an awesome day_.

The snow was falling heavily. Every step we took crunched and crackled beneath our boots, and out hair glistened with snowflakes, like diamonds threaded into the strands. Hogwarts was illuminated by every single window that glowed, the light penetrating the early morning mist. This was a time of year at Hogwarts I loved - I couldn't believe I wouldn't see the castle like this next year.

Mara looked radiant - she left her hair loose so that it fell around her face, and her cheeks were rosy. Her eyes were shining like I'd never seen them. This made me curious.

"What made you so happy Mara?" I asked, smirking. To my surprise, Mara _and _Leanne blushed. _This had better be good if she told Leanne without me there._

Mara looked back up at me, failing to hide her smile. "Well, Rose...it's James," Mara giggled, looking down at her feet, and running a hand through her hair. My eyes widened. I'd never seen Mara this happy before. And because of my cousin?

"What did he do?" I asked, curious as to what James could have possibly done to make Mara so delighted.

Mara looked me in the eye, with Leanne biting her lip beside her. "He...he said he loved me. And I...I love him, too," she whispered, her eyes sparkling with love rapture.

The world seemed to freeze. Mara, in love with my cousin? James, in love with my friend? He'd never said the 'L' word to anyone before. He'd said, perhaps, "You're sexy," or, "You're amazing," to his previous girlfriends, but never that he loved one of them! This was different. This time it was special.

I shook my head. "Well, I honestly can't believe it, but only because I didn't think James ever would say that word to anyone, Mara. If he loves you, then I think he really means it. And I can see how happy you are, I guess," I murmured, trying to hide my distaste. I guess I'd have to live with it. I mean, my Uncle Harry had been best friends with Dad at Hogwarts, and that was really how he met Aunt Ginny, because she was Dad's sister. Harry and Ginny. Ginny and Harry. Was it so different to Mara and James? If this was real, then I wouldn't stand in their way.

We let the topic drop. None of us really wanted to talk about it.

"So what do you want to buy, Rose?" Leanne asked, after a moment of walking along in silence. Hogsmeade was just appearing over the horizon.

"Anything that isn't one of my grandma's knitted jumpers," I laughed, "What about you?"

Leanne and Mara exchanged a look. "Well, we actually wanted to ask you opinion about something," Mara said, smirking. I raised my eyebrows at her, prompting her to keep talking.

"Well, we were thinking about trying to organise," Mara continued, pausing to let Leanne take over her sentence.

"An unofficial prom!" Leanne blurted out, squealing. Prom. There'd never been one at Hogwarts before. It was a Muggle tradition, but one I wanted to experience.

"I love it!" I squealed, jumping slightly. "So basically, it's a party that all the seventh-years are invited to, and...where is it?" I asked. I couldn't imagine Professor MacPhersonis supporting the prom enough to let it be held in the Great Hall.

Leanne frowned. "We're still working on that part. Maybe the Shrieking Shack?" she asked. I shook my head. "Too small for the whole year. The Forbidden Forest?"

"Too dangerous."

"Muggle building?"

"Too far."

"Common room?"

"Too small."

"Hogs Head?"

"As if!" Mara and I chorused, then burst out laughing. Leanne joined in laughing with us.

"Ok, we'll work that bit out later," she spluttered between hysterics

We left the trail of clues that would indicate we were back up at the castle, then headed behind a building to Apparate.

The horrible sucking sensation engulfed me, pulling me through a rubber tube. I resisted the urge to scream - even though I'd been apparating for ages now, I still wasn't fond of the sensation.

Then suddenly, we were surrounded by people. Laughing, chatting Muggles, going about their shopping. Leanne, Mara and I looked at each other, then grinned.

"Lets go to _every_ shop!" I squealed, clapping my hand slightly. We linked arms and walked down the high street.

"Let's hit Oxford Street!" Mara screamed, throwing an arm in the air, causing us to burst out laughing, and a few Muggles to stare at her as if convinced she was mad.

We made a resolve to buy at least one thing in each shop. Every single shop. It didn't have to be anything big, maybe a hair accessory. We'd been saving up Muggle money for ages for this, and had each accumulated a large sum. It was when we got to dress shopping that things got serious.

I whipped round to face the other two, my bags swinging around on my arms. "I really want to find a nice dress today," I said. The others looked confused. Then Mara's eyes widened. "Oh. My. Merlin. Did something good happen on your date last night?"

I was momentarily puzzled. _Oh, right. Sam_. I blushed, and suddenly my feet had become very interesting. My friends gasped at the same time.

"What happened? Tell us everything - everything!" they squeaked, giggling.

I shrugged, still studying my feet. "I don't know. He was nice," I muttered. _This was not what I was thinking about when I asked for a dress._

I heard Leanne's loud intake of breath. "Oh. You kissed him didn't you!" she whispered. I didn't answer her.

"Oh my god, Rose has a boyfriend!" Mara teased. I looked up to glare at her in a jokey way. "Sam is _not _my boyfriend," I began, rolling my eyes, "We just went on a date, and he just kissed me, and..." I trailed off, because even to my ears my words sounded like synonyms of the word _boyfriend_. "I don't think I like him in that way," I whispered.

They didn't speak for a moment. "Rose, please like him. He's cool," Leanne pleaded, but not in a serious way. The slight smile on her face made me think she understood.

"Why do you want the dress anyway, if it's not for a date?" Mara asked, confusion clearly audible in her voice.

I flushed again, but this time not very noticeably. _It might be for a date. Someday. I just don't know who with._

"I'm going to Teddy and Victoire's wedding in December, and I really want a nice dress to wear," I invented. In my haste to make up an excuse, my words seemed to fall on top of each other, however it was a plausible story. _Ha. Teddy and Victoire aren't getting married until _next _December._ Mara and Leanne didn't know this though.

"Oh! Oh my god, yes, you have to get a dress!" Mara gasped, clasping her hands.

So that was that. We spent a happy hour dress shopping. I convinced Leanne and Mara to try on dresses too. Strangely, Leanne tried on a dress, and it didn't suit her, but then Mara tried on the same dress and we both announced it looked gorgeous. I didn't understand that - identical twins looking completely different in the same dress? Maybe it was magic.

Mara bought that dress. The lilac brought out the platinum blonde tints in her honey coloured hair, and the tightness accented her curves in all the right places. Leanne decided on a mint green empire waistline maxi dress, that made her look slender and her legs impossibly long. My dress took a long time to choose, but when we found it we couldn't believe we'd considered anything else.

It was a high waisted dress, with lace all over the top with a pink satin insert just below the lace. It had a flared out skirt, and ended around the middle of my thighs. The moment I showed it to Leanne and Mara they had a brief silent conversation about what to do. After half a second they jumped off their chairs, knelt on the floor and pretended I was a goddess. In retaliation, I made them put their dresses back on, and then I made everyone in the store clap them when they came out of the cubicle. I knew they'd never admit it, but I personally think they really enjoyed it.

So at three o'clock we emerged from that store, each carrying about twice the number of bags we'd had when we'd gone in there. Mara announced she wanted to get some vintage clothes, so we headed into another promising shop. I found another cute little vintage top in there, so I bought that too. Leanne and Mara left there with a vast amount of bags, that must've literally weighed the same as them combined. Leanne told us she wanted some shorts, so we then traipsed around another few shorts trying to find the perfect pair. In one designer shop, we decided to give each other a make-over. I gave Mara an artfully loose and baggy jumper with some high waisted shorts. Mara gave Leanne some pink jeans and a lace vest top, and Leanne gave me an emerald green day dress with silver stilettos. We all bought every single outfit we tried on.

Just as we'd decided to return to Hogsmeade, something happened. One of my silver shoes fell out of one of my bags as I was crossing the road. Mara and Leanne continued on without me. I reached down to pick up the shoe, when I heard a scream. I looked up. Mara was the one that had screamed, and Leanne was gasping and pointing. I looked in the direction of her hand. There was a huge black car hurtling around in the snow, skidding and sliding...

_Right towards me_.

I closed my eyes and braced myself for the impact. Then something flew at me from the side, not the front. I was suddenly standing next to Mara and Leanne, as if it wasn't happening. Then we heard a crunch of something snapping. I screamed and covered my eyes, thinking someone had been hit. When I removed my hands from my face, I saw what had been hit instead of me.

My silver shoe.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine:**

Someone - I didn't know who - had saved my life. I would be eternally indebted to a stranger.

Mara, Leanne and I resolved to clear off quickly - there were reporters coming in who wanted to interview us, and not only would that expose us sneaking off to Oxford Street, but our parents would worry, too. Slipping into a quieter part of the area, we apparated as close to Hogwarts as possible. We hurried back up to the castle, retelling in hushed voices our versions of the event. It occurred to me that I had never recovered my silver shoe from the middle of the road, however that hardly mattered. Filch ran us over with Secrecy Sensors whilst we were talking, telling him that James had stopped off in Hogsmeade with all our bags because we'd asked him to, when Filch where we'd gotten all our shopping from.

We rushed up to the dormitory, taking two steps at a time, leaping up the staircases. We waved at all of the paintings, who, confused, waved back at us. We giggled and squealed about how fun the day had been, how exciting the car was - although we all knew it hadn't been exciting at all.

"_Mimbleweed_," panted Leanne, after we'd charged up the final staircase. The Fat Lady shook her head.

"Password changed noon today. Headmistress' orders," she explained, a little gruffly as she had been just settling down to a drink with her friend Violet.

"Please?" Mara begged, going onto her knees. I burst out laughing at the sight of Mara's _sincere _begging, and on that note the Fat Lady stopped taking us seriously.

We slumped against the wall, waiting for a Gryffindor to come and let us in. We were stuck there for about ten minutes, encased in a wall of shopping bags when a fifth-year boy came along.

"_Dormiens,_" he said, and at his voice my head whipped up. I leapt through our shopping bags, causing the contents to fly across the corridor.

"Hugo!" I cried, flinging my arms around my brother. Hugo awkwardly patted me on the back.

"Hey, sis'," he muttered, trying to peel himself off me.

I leaned back, the put my hands on his shoulders. "Don't you ever do that again. You hear me? Don't you ever attack a hoard of blood-thirsty spiders!" I hissed, then I let go off him.

Hugo hung his head. "I just wanted to prove I was a brave as Mum and Dad,_" _he muttered.

"Dad can barely even look at even a baby spider! And you don't need to prove anything. Ok?" I replied, shoving him playfully through the portrait hole. The Fat Lady began to swing shut.

"No, no! Wait for us!" Leanne screamed, scrambling up and trying to collect all her bags. The Fat Lady paused, considering us, then opened slowly once again to let us pass. We scooped up our bags and leapt through the portrait hole into the common room. It was relatively empty, as most of the Gryffindors were probably still in Hogsmeade.

We had just started to ascend to the girls dormitory when someone called my name.

"Rose," the person said, softly. I winced. _Oh, brother_.

"Hey, Sam," I repsonded, softly and staring determinedly at my boots, which were now stained with snow.

"I just wanted to say I had a really great time on Friday, and would you like to hang out after the Quidditch practice on Wednesday?" Sam asked, sounding sincere. I considered this. Sam was a nice guy, but would I be leading him on? Or did I actually want to go?

"Sure. I'll see you at practice," I replied, smiling a little. Sam ginned back at me, seeming genuinely happy. I quickly left to return to the dormitory, where the other two were waiting for me.

"Well, look who got another date!" Leanne teased after I had flopped, face down on the bed.

"Mmm," I grunted.

"Did you see who saved you, Rose?" Mara whispered, changing the subject. I rolled over onto my back, my hair splayed out across the duvet.

"No. Did you?" I murmured, closing my eyes.

"I saw something. I can't really remember their face. I think it was a man. A young man. I didn't see much else. It was all so fast," she breathed, hugging her knees to her chest.

"I thought they must have been really strong, to push you out of the way so efficiently," Leanne added.

"They _seemed _strong. I remember their hands were suddenly on my waist, pushing me off the road. How could someone do that and not get hurt themselves?" I whispered in admiration of this stranger.

"Maybe it was Superman," Mara giggled. _Maybe it was. Whoever they are, they're my superman._

"You'd have thought whoever it was would have wanted to stick around and get some credit for saving a girls life," Leanne mused. "They must have been really selfless to do something like that."

"To risk their own life," Mara whispered.

"To save mine," I finished, closing my eyes. I was picturing it in my head. Years from now, I would go back to Oxford Street, and there'd be a man there. He'd approach me and tell me that it had been him who'd saved my life. I'd invite to get a drink to say thank you, and then we would get talking and discover how much we had in common. We'd realise we loved each other eventually, and it would be perfect - to spend my life loving the person who'd saved it. But then a harsh reality woke me up. The man who had pushed me from the car was probably a Muggle, and I don't think I could bare it if this fantasy man left me when he discovered I was a witch - or worse, I'd spend my life hiding this huge secret from him. And chances were we didn't have anything in common, we wouldn't fall in love, and we would never meet again.

I sat up, annoyed at this twist in my fantasy. "We should talk about the prom, guys," I invited the conversation in. Really that was all it took. We spent the night gossiping about what the theme should be, when it would be, but most importantly, where we'd hold it.

"It's going to be so cool," I smiled, when we had realised we were still at loss for a venue.

"Who would you like to go with, Leanne?" Mara asked, lifting an eyebrow, attempting to shake off my fantasy. Leanne looked surprised.

"We don't need to think that far ahead, Rose. It's barely Christmas! I've got all year to get a date," she explained. I understood. She still wanted Liam.

We continued with some mindless chatter for an hour or so, then we decided to get into bed. Mara pulled on a little sleep-playsuit, Leanne some long jogging bottoms and a tight bandeau top, and I shrugged into some matching shorts and a vest. The other two girls we shared our dorm with came in a bit later, being a bit surly with each other - they'd obviously had a fight.

When the lights went out, we kept on talking. They were right. It was Christmas next that we had to think about, and whether we would spend it here. Of course I knew that I'd have to go home - Mum was big on _family_ holidays - but a bigger question was what to get each other. Every year we decided on a theme. In our first year it had been jewelry, next year a top, the next year perfume and so on.

I considered this topic for a moment. "How about anything that will remind us of the brilliant times we had at Hogwarts? We're not going to be here next year, we should have a little memoir," I whispered into the darkness. The moon was streaming through the window, casting shadows that didn't really seem to be there. If I raised my hand, the light would trickle through my fingers, yet it wasn't even there. Not really.

"I love it," Mara's voice breathed, making the moonlight twist and swirl around the room, like an intricate dance. One strand of light would move first, then the other would curve around it - partners in the dance.

After the other two had long fallen asleep, I lay awake thinking. _I wonder who it was who saved my life. I'd really like to meet them some day. I wonder what they look like? Are they blonde? Do they have brown hair? Black hair? Red, like me? What colour eyes do they have? How old are they? I really hope they were a wizard. Merlin, that sounded prejudiced. I hope I meet them someday. What if I already know them? That would be strange. I wonder if it is anyone I know..._

My mind moved on to puzzle over more trivial things.

_I hope Scorp stops being angry with me soon. I don't want to lose him again. It really upset me last time. Why did he get so worked up about it, anyway? So I went on a date with Sam. He had no right to be jealous. Jealous? Where'd I get that from? Was he jealous? Does he like me or something? No, he can't. He's too much of a prat to think in that way about anyone. No he's not. But I don't think he likes me. Do I like him? Or do I like Sam?_

Before I could work out the answer to this I drifted into a sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten:**

It was our first Quidditch match today. We were up against Hufflepuff. Slytherin had won their match against Ravenclaw, but I hadn't wanted to go - I'd deliberately made sure that I'd had plans with Sam that day. Sam and I had been dating for a month. I'd chosen him. Sam was nice, kind, smart, funny and interested in me - completely unlike my first impression of him, that he was self-centered. Also, he didn't mess with my head. Scorpius had been a friend, nothing more, nothing less. Now we weren't friends, and that was that.

Sam was really sweet. He took me to see the Holyhead Harpies one day, and even introduced me to the Captain, Georgia Wilgorsima. We been going out in secret at least once a week, usually to Hogsmeade, occasionally sneaking off somewhere else. We didn't let our relationship interfere with the team though. We didn't flaunt the fact that we were dating at all. I might have played it up slightly when a certain Slytherin Seeker passed by, but Sam, although surprised by my seemingly spontaneous unexcepted public display of affection, did enjoy it. And the funny thing was, I was enjoying having a boyfriend too.

Slytherin had won their match two hundred to forty. Not all too brilliantly factoring the Snitch's automatic one hundred and fifty points, but nevertheless they had won it. We needed to beat Hufflepuff to by more than two hundred points to get a lead on Slytherin. Luckily, we'd been training hard and I was very pleased by the teamwork they had all shown.

We took our places above the field. The whistle blew. The Quaffle flew high into the air. Albus soared high up like I had instructed him to, so he wouldn't get injured before the appearance of the Snitch. The Hufflepuffs were playing a different tactic with their Seeker - Katy Bluehalph was creating diversions left, right and centre, as her specific job wouldn't be put into action until later in the match.

"And Hufflepuff's Smith has caught the Quaffle! He passes to Franzi - what a cracking move that was - oh, but Gryffindor's McAdams has intercepted Franzi's pass to Smith, passes to Weasley, who seems to be preparing to pass to Jones..."

Actually, Weasley wasn't planning to pass to Jones. I was putting an idea of mine into practice. I

made the signal to Hepiliya, who nodded at Jonathan. Looking skyward, I threw the Quaffle high above my head. Jonathan, who'd been flying directly above me, caught it with ease, and in less than a second the Quaffle was gracing the sides of the goal. The crowd went wild.

"What a risky move, but wow, it payed off! Gryffindor scores within the first two minutes of the match!" Zachary Hiller bellowed into his microphone. Thank Merlin we had a non-biased commentator today - Zachary was a Ravenclaw.

We didn't have long to congratulate ourselves. Sonia, a Chaser for Hufflepuff, was in possesion of the Quaffle, and soaring toward Sam, who was guarding our goal. Aphelia blocked her, shooting in front of her, and hitting a Bludger at the Quaffle. _That was unusual._ Strange tactic, but it worked; Sonia dropped the Quaffle into the waiting arms of Hepiliya, who scored again.

"Twenty points to Gryffindor! But wait, what's Hoott doing?" Zachary asked, his voice projected all around. My head snapped round, searching for Hoott, my ponytail smacking me in the face in the process. Hoott, a Beater, seemed to be flying towards Sam, his bat at the ready, waiting for a pass from Tom...

The impact of the Bludger on Sam's face rang around the arena, the sound of metal on flesh echoing. Sam sat there for a moment, dazed, then almost in slow motion toppled off his broom, unconscious. All the Gryffindor team flew beneath him, waiting to catch him. We'd prepared for this type of event in team practice, and we even had a formation. Sam landed on the intertwined sections of our brooms with a _thump_, momentarily causing us to tilt forwards, yet we soon regained our balance, and carefully moved in a collective motion towards the side of the pitch, where we put him down on the ground, for Madame Pomfrey to take to the Hospital Wing. Then we quickly had to get back to our positions. _Great, we've lost our Keeper. That's very useful._

With Sam gone, the Hufflepuffs scored three times in a row. We scored another two times, so still in the lead, however we needed to score at least twice more before Albus - hopefully - caught the Snitch to gain a lead on Slytherin.

Arnold scored, then Rochelle, then Sonia twice in row, putting us thirty points behind Hufflepuff. Thankfully, Hepiliya scored a goal from the far side of the pitch - "Wow, look at that Quaffle go! All the way across the field...she scored, Gryffindor's Jones scored! What an amazing hit!" - but now Rochelle was holding the Quaffle. I raised my hand, not turning, and luckily Aaron understood what I meant. The Bludger went flying towards Rochelle, hitting her square in the chest. Screeching to a halt underneath her, the Quaffle landed in my waiting arms, and without even thinking about it I lobbed it through the goalpost. It had been so easy to score I didn't even register for a moment that I had. But George Allan, the Keeper for Hufflepuff, looked furious. So I supposed I must have.

Ten points behind Hufflepuff now. _We can do this._

"I think Potter's seen something, is it the Snitch? Look at that dive!" Zachary cried, penetrating my cloud of confusion about whether I had in fact scored or not. I revolved on my broomstick to see Albus diving. _He seen it! _I punched the air in my exhilaration, adrenaline pumping through my bones. I could see Albus nosediving, but Katy Bluehalph was catching him up, she was overtaking him, at this rate she would reach the Snitch before Albus did! No, wait, they were both going to crash! _Albus! _I silently screamed, willing him not to crash at such a speed. Suddenly, at the last moment Albus abruptly pulled up, shooting skywards, whilst Katy, caught off guard, forgot to pay attention to what she was doing, and hit the ground hard. _A Wronski Feint!_ Albus pulled off a Wronski Feint! The Gryffindors in the stands went wild, screaming themselves hoarse and clapping like hooligans, madly and erratically.

"Was that a Wronski Feint we just saw performed by Albus Potter? That was invented by Josef Wronski, and was frequently performed by the Bulgarian Quidditch player, Viktor Krum, who actually one took part in a Triwizard Tournament right here at Hogwarts in 1995, I think it was...what's Potter doing up there? Has he...? He's caught the Snitch, Albus Potter's caught the Snitch!" Zachary cried. I look up at Albus. Sure enough, he was flying down towards us, a small golden object quivering in his grip. I let out a shriek of happiness, then joined the Gryffindors for a massive air hug.

"We won, we won, we won!" I chanted, as we revolved in midair.

"Well done, Al!" Aphelia screamed, her voice so piercing that I covered my ears.

"Gryffindor end the match with two hundred and ten points, versus Hufflepuff's seventy! Gryffindor wins, and what an amazing match that was!" Zachary roared gleefully. _Maybe I was wrong about him being impartial. _

Madame Lawson blew the whistle, and the match was over. I jumped off my broom happily, and I heard Albus running up behind me.

"What did you think of that, Rose?" Albus laughed. I hadn't heard him this happy in ages.

I leaned over and slung an arm over one of his shoulders. "Well, you could have tried harder, Albus," I sighed sarcastically. Albus pouted.

"But...but..." he whimpered, pretending to be the sorriest excuse for a teenage boy ever. I punched his shoulder lightly.

"You were literally outstanding and you know it," I smirked, and Albus grinned back at me. "Where'd you learn to do a Wronski Feint?" I asked, curious.

Albus' smile stretched, something I hadn't thought possible. "You remember that time that your mum invited Viktor Krum and his wife over for dinner?" he asked. I winced in recollection. Mum had met Viktor in her fourth year at Hogwarts when he came to take part in the Triwizard Tournament, and had invited him and his new wife, Hermia, around for lunch one day. I'd been looking forward to meeting Viktor Krum for weeks, as I had really wanted to pick his brain about Quidditch tactics. However, in my haste to get his food served, I'd managed to spill en entire bowl of beef and potato strew on top of him when I'd tripped over Hugo's foot - which I still fully believe was on purpose. I'd hidden in my room out of embarrassment, and had never gotten a chance to speak to Viktor Krum. I'd been devastated.

Taking my scowl as a sign that I most definitely did remember, Albus continued. "Well, after you hid in your room, Krum took us into the garden and demonstrated to me, Lily and Hugo how to do a Wronski Feint. He helped us with technic and everything, our speed, our style, our stamina...you can really see how he was a world class Quidditch player!" Albus enthused. It occurred to me that we were dashing up to the common room. _Oh, of course. The party._

We'd been some of the last to leave the stadium, so by the time the Fat Lady opened for us, the party was in full flow. Someone had found some faded Gryffindor banners - that at one point would have matched the colour of my hair exactly - and draped them in front of the paintings so they couldn't see what was happening beneath.

The lights had been altered to resemble pulsating, bizarrely coloured spheres, and there was a heavy music blaring from a hidden stereo we always had stashed behind on of the red sofas. There was a large buffet table piled high with snacks, and a little bit of something to get us in a party mood.

We weren't dumb enough to use alcohol openly. We had a fruit punch bowl that had been spiked, and Albus immediately went to guard it. We couldn't allow anyone who was underage in the wizarding world - so under sixteen - to drink any of it, as we usually borrowed our spirits from Hagrid, and recently he'd been drinking something much stronger than Butterbeer. _Actually, I'd quite like a Butterbeer now._ I went and hooked my fingers through a mug. As I was filling the mug up to the top with foamy liquid, I saw Lily elbowing her way through the throng of dancing teenagers, tugging the end of her top down, as it had been hitched up around her..._Ok._ _Ew._

"Rose, I want to talk to you!" she yelled above the loud, beating music, moving to pour herself some punch. I quickly closed my fingers over the punch ladle, and Albus was instantly restraining his sister.

"Not yet, you're not sixteen for another six months," he said sternly. Lily used a colourful in response, that could be heard above the music. I scowled at her.

"Well, like it or not, I need to talk to you, Rose!" she cried, grabbing my arm and tugging me rather roughly through the cluster of intoxicated teenagers. She pulled me into a corner where the music was a bit quiet. When she turned to face me, I groaned internally. Obviously from her eyes we hadn't stopped Lily from having her first drink. Or her tenth.

"Rose, I want to talk you," she said, quite clearly for someone who'd obviously drunk as much as she had.

"About what?" I said loudly, so that she could hear me above the louder track the music had just switched to.

"You know how Hugo wanted to live up to your parents or something?" Lily belted into my ear.

"Yeah, I guess," I shrugged, not wanting to remember the event too vividly.

"I was thinking, we should pretend to do that, too!" she squealed, as if it were the best idea ever.

If it hadn't been for the loud music, I was positive that the Slytherins under the lake would have heard my cursing Lily. _Pretend to do something my brother almost died doing? Is she mad?_

"Woah!" Lily cried, her hands whipping up in front of her, as if to protect herself my my vicious words. "Calm down, Rose! Merlin...I mean...let's go somewhere quieter!" she sighed in exasperation. She began tugging me along behind her again, but this time I snatched my arms out of her cool grasp and I led the way.

"What do you mean, _pretend_?" I asked, when we were finally upstairs in the girls dormitory.

"Well, my year is stressed because of OWLS, your year is freaked about the NEWTS, so I was thinking we should do something to give them a bit of entertainment," Lily smirked, teetering slightly on one foot.

I frowned, confused. "What would we do?"

Lily's eyebrows jumped up her forehead, then dropped an instant later, as if in a knowing manner.

"Are you in?" she grinned.

"What would we do?" I repeated, folding my arms across my chest.

Lily chuckled. "Leave it to me," she beamed, clearly proud of her idea.

"Only if you're sure it's safe!" I quickly interjected, knowing how many times our parents had been injured in their _adventures._

Lily nodded once, smiling a crooked smile. "Trust me. After Christmas is over, Hogwarts is going to be in for a wild year."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven:**

Whatever Lily was planing on doing, she had told me it wouldn't happen until after Christmas.

"We need to Albus and Hugo in on it, too," she told me a couple of weeks before the holidays, "It won't work if it's only you and me."

"Will it be dangerous for them?" I asked - I hadn't wanted to risk Hugo's life at stake again just for some prank.

Lily laughed this down. "Rose, I _promise_! It's totally fine! As if I would try to kill my family!"

I'd pitched the idea to Hugo later that day.

"What?" he'd said, when I first told him.

"Well, you know how you wanted to 'live up to our parents'?" I said, making little quotation marks with my fingers. Hugo blushed slightly, then shook his overly long hair in front of his face to cover it up. I scowled - Hugo's hair really was a point of concern for all the family. He hadn't been prepared to sign off on the Weasley tradition completely, so last week, instead of dying his ginger hair black, like he'd wanted, he settled on a deep, metallic red. He also wore it so long, now, that it reached the lower part of his shoulder, just where his arms begun. At this rate, by his seventh-year, his hair would be longer than mine!

"You mean how I single-handedly tackled the Acromantula?" he muttered, angry that I'd made him sound like a mummy's-boy. I waved a hand in the air nonchalantly.

"Whatever you want to call it, little bro. Anyway, Lily has this idea that will make everyone _think_ that's what we're doing, but really it's just a little entertainment thing for the fifth and seventh-years!" I whispered as a gaggle of fourth-years scurried past us.

Hugo pursed his lips. "What will we do?" he asked, after a long moment.

I bit my lip. "I don't know yet," I shrugged, trying to hide my worry with that part of the plan.

After another minute, Hugo raised his head, his eyes sparkling like I hadn't seen them do since he was eleven and got his acceptance to Hogwarts. "I'll do it," he breathed. I wondered what part of the plot made him this happy. I could only assume I would find out later.

Lily and I rendezvoused later in a broom cupboard. She told me that Albus had been willing to take part in the plan, and I informed her that Hugo seemed quite excited about it. She grinned.

"Great! So I think we need to meet up and discuss this, work out when we'll put it into action. Maybe we should meet up on Boxing Day to talk about it...oh!" she gasped, her eyes glistening with anticipation.

"What?" I asked, eager and nervous to discover what she was thinking.

"I have just had the most brilliant beyond brilliant idea!" she whispered.

"What?" I whispered back, in a sarcastic imitation of her voice. Lily's hideous scowl made me burst out laughing, causing her to scowl harder.

"You'll find out on Boxing Day," she hissed, "Now I've got to run, Lucas is taking me out to Madame Puddifoots."

I walked back up to the common room on my own. I'd given up trying to keep track of Lily's latest boyfriends, I really had. Just before I ascended the last staircase, I heard someone call my name. Turning, I saw Hugo standing a couple of floors below with Mum and Dad.

_"_What are you guys still doing here? I thought you went back home ages ago," I said loudly, so they could hear me. I saw Dad beckon me down.

"Why are you still here?" I asked finally, a little breathless having practically ran down five flights of stairs. Mum and Dad looked at each other and nodded.

"Rose, darling, you know we were having a..." here Mum paused to look at Hugo, "discussion, as to whether Hugo would be allowed to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas this year. Honestly, I really prefer having Christmas as family occasion, but the thing is we can see how strongly Hugo wants to spend his Christmas holidays here," Mum whispered. _Is she serious? She's actually going to let him stay here at Hogwarts for Christmas?_

"So, Hugo's going to be here at Christmas?" I asked, frowning. Mum bit her lip.

"Well, the thing is," Dad took over, laying an arm around Mum's shoulder, "that what with all that's happened recently with the spiders," here Dad let out an involuntary shudder, "we really aren't comfortable Hugo staying here alone with no-one to keep an eye on him."

I frowned harder, my confusion piling up. "So you two are staying here too?"

"Well, this is completely up to you, Rose - of course we would love you both to be at home for the holiday, and if you don't want to we are definitely _not _going to force you into this, but we were thinking, if Hugo does stay here, then maybe you should too."

_This does not make any sense. If I could see my confusion, it would be the height of Mount Everest._

"You would both, of course, come home on Christmas Day and spend the night there, but we would permit you to spend you holidays here, if you want," Dad solemnly said.

"You are actually serious?" I stammered. Mum and Dad exchanged a glance, then nodded their heads. Hugo looked at me, pleading from beneath his shaggy mane of hair. Who needed to be pleaded with?

"Sure, I love that idea!" I exclaimed, jumping slightly. Mum's face fell slightly, but she hid it well.

"Right then. I suppose it's good-bye until Christmas Day, then. Ron, why don't we visit my parents in Australia, as we don't have to wait for the kids to break up we can see them for a few weeks," she whispered, smiling slightly. I knew how upset she would be, but...but staying at Hogwarts, even if only for a little bit longer! I would have free reign of the castle, no lessons, just the castle and me.

I noticed Mum hugging Hugo. "See you at Christmas, darling," she whispered. Then she moved over to me. Before she could hug me, I blurted out, "Mum, can I talk to you?"

She looked surprised, however then said, "Of course, dear."

I led her off a little further away from Dad and Hugo, so I wouldn't feel self-conscious. I began talking.

"So, basically, me, Mara and Leanne were thinking of having an end-of-year party - a prom, I guess - but we didn't know where we could hold it without the professors complaining, and I was wondering if you knew anywhere it could be. Just a perfect place for a party," I whispered, looking over my shoulder to check no-one was there. Mum smiled.

"Of course, Rose!" she exclaimed, rubbing a hand on my shoulder. I raised my eyebrows, waiting to hear what she thought was so obvious. "Just use the Room of Requirement!" she laughed.

_That sounds so cheesy._ "The _Room of Requirement_?" I asked, incredulously. Mum stopped laughing straight away.

"But I suppose...oh, you've never had a reason to go there, have you?" she muttered, her head whirring. I shook my head and pursed my lips.

"What is this room, anyway?" I asked.

"Oh, well, when I was at Hogwarts," Mum began. _This is going to be a _really _long story. _"When I was here, there was this teacher called Professor Umbridge. Horrible woman, she's the one that gave Harry...Uncle Harry, those scars on the back of his hand," she explained. _I've always wondered where they came from._

"What did she do to him?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. Mum winced.

"Oh, well...she gave him a detention for talking about," Mum took a furtive glance over her shoulder before continuing, "Voldemort, and made him write lines," she muttered, looking down.

"How is that so bad?" I asked, confused again.

"She...she gave him a quill that cut into his hand when he wrote on the parchment, and then used his blood for ink," she explained, looking into my eyes. I shivered.

"Ew," I whispered. Mum nodded.

"Well, anyway, she was our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and she wasn't teaching us anything, and what with...Voldemort, coming back to power, we felt we needed to know more defensive arts. So we found the Room of Requirement and your Uncle Harry taught this group of friends - the DA_ -_ all kinds of defensive spells, like _stupefy, expecto patronus_...and then in our seventh year, the year we weren't in Hogwarts, everyone who'd been the DA spent most of their time camped out in that room, hiding from the Carrows - a couple of dead Death Eaters - and Severus Snape," Mum said this last name with unwilling tenderness. "They didn't think they were good people, and the DA often were physically harmed by the Carrows, especially Neville - Professor Longbottom." As I processed all this new information, something rang a bell in my head, a little part of my brain was wheedling it's way to the forefront of my mind. _Severus..._

"Severus...isn't that Al's middle name?" I asked. Mum nodded. "Well, if every hid from him because they thought he would hurt them, then why did Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry name Al after him?"

To my surprise, tears appeared in Mum's eyes. "Well, actually, we were all..._terribly_ wrong about Severus Snape, Rose. We were _so very _wrong about him," Mum whispered, wiping a tear from her eye. I nodded slightly, prompting her to keep on talking. "Well, for years we had all looked at Snape as the _bad guy _at Hogwarts. When we were in our sixth year, he killed Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster at the time." I nodded - Al was named after him, too. This only added to my confusion, however, yet before I had time to ask what was bothering me Mum was talking again. "He then joined the Death Eaters, followers of Voldemort, and for months I'm almost certain Harry fantasized about killing him," Mum laughed, quietly. I laughed to, however hoping that this part wasn't true. "Anyway, when we came back to Hogwarts for the Battle, we witnessed Severus' death, and he gave Harry his memories to watch in the Pensive - a bowl in the Headmaster's office that you watch memories in, I suppose. When Harry watched them, he discovered many things about Severus. That he had known their Mum when they were children, how he had...loved her," Mum scowled slightly at that part. Clearly, there was still some resentment towards Severus. "Severus made Dumbledore protect Harry's mother, his father and him from Voldemort, but it...it didn't work. So from then on Severus made a vow to protect Harry. He pretended to be a Death Eater to make Voldemort trust him, to keep him away from Harry, to keep Harry safe. Dumbledore had _asked _Severus to kill him, so that Draco Malfoy, a boy in our year, wouldn't have to. Severus was a great man, Rose. So unfortunately misunderstood. But _great_. I only wish we'd known how extraordinary he truly was before it was too late..." Mum trailed off.

_Wow. _

Mum regained herself. "Anyway, yes, the Room of Requirement is the perfect place for a party. It's on the seventh floors, just opposite the tapestry of _Barnabas the Barmy_. Walk past it three times to get in, and think hard about what you want to be able to do inside." she said, hurriedly. Mum gave me a quick hug and whispered "See you on Christmas Day!" before starting to turn back inn Dad and Hugo's direction.

"Wait, Mum," I said, quietly. She turned, her face pale.

"Why did you never tell me about Severus before?" I breathed, bewildered. _Surely, if he played such a big part in their lives I would have known about it_.

Mum hesitated before replying. "There were a lot of things that happened back then that your Dad and I still find difficult to talk about. I barely speak of Severus to anybody, even though I know that I should, to clear his name. We lost so many good people back then, Rose. Teddy's parents, your Uncle Fred, and so many others that if I stood here naming all of them I would be here until gone Christmas. Severus was a good man with a bad reputation. If you ever hear anything bad about him, just try to remember that," she finished. Then she hurried back to where Dad and Hugo stood chatting awkwardly. Mum said something to Dad, so then he gave Hugo a quick pat on the shoulder before turning in my direction.

"Bye!" he called out, waving in a huge motion. I blushed out of embarrassment, but still waved back, more discreetly than my father did. Then Mum and Dad strolled off, seemingly in a hurry to get somewhere. Hugo darted up to me.

"Er, thanks Rose, for letting me stay here," he muttered after about a minute of us just standing around not saying a word.

"No problem!" I squeaked, shrugging my shoulders awkwardly. We stood around for a couple more seconds, then Hugo rushed off without another word.

_I'm spending the holidays at Hogwarts!_ I could have sang! _And tomorrow I'm going to find this Room of Requirement._


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve:**

The sun was rising later and later these days, now that we were deep into a bitter winter. I got up to watch the sun rise. I cast beautiful rays of orange, red and yellow, and wherever the drops of gold touched land, the land would turn a gorgeous, more vibrant version of itself. Today was the last day before the holidays.

I then remembered that I actually had a purpose today. I was going to find the Room of Requirement. Slipping into my robes, I padded down the stairs into the common room, and then snuck out of the portrait hole. The Fat Lady was a bit disgruntled about missing out on her lie-in, but soon students would be flooding through her anyway, desperate to get to lessons on the last day of term. I had a free period this morning, so I could do what I liked. And what I liked was finding new secrets about Hogwarts.

I had seen the tapestry of Barnabas many times, of course. I'd never liked it very much, always too...well, to be perfectly honest, weird. I knew that obviously everything in Hogwarts could most likely be catagorised as weird, but for me Barnabas was a bit too much. That said, I had no problem about the tapestry of the goblin wearing a santa uniform sitting in a pink classroom surrounded by Cornish Pixies being taught algebra, so maybe that thing about Barnabas really was just my personal opinion.

When I arrived in the corridor, I stood for a minute, shuffling form foot to foot, feeling slightly foolish. _What should I be thinking?_ I wondered. Looking from side to side, assuring myself that nobody was there, I began walking.

_I want to find the place that's perfect for a party, I want the place that's perfect for a party, I want the place that's perfect for a party._

I stopped to look at the wall. _Is that my imagination...oh Merlin what's happening to the wall?_

An enormous door was emerging in the wall. It must have been very grand and ornate once, however now it looked as if it had been caught in the centre of a fire. The door was solid now, so before entering I touched the handle, to ensure that there wasn't a fire inside now. Judging by the icy temperature of the door, I deemed it fire-free and safe to enter. I pulled on the door, and the rusting metal scraped against the cold floor, making my spine tremble and quiver.

The moment the door was open, the stench of burn hit my nose like a battering ram, and instantly I was coughing and holding my robes up to my face. I looked inside, yet could see only darkness.

"_Lumos_," I coughed, taking a step inside. My robes weren't going to be enough to keep the smoke away from my lungs, and with a stroke of inspiration I performed the bubblehead charm on myself. _At least I can breathe now. _The light revealed that the room was packed dense with smoke. Thick, unnatural smoke. _I wonder what happened in here_. The must have been a fire, judging by the door and the layers upon layers of smoke. I raised my wand, and through the haze of fog I saw a window. I rushed over to open it. Slowly, the smoke poured out, and the strange thing was that the instant the light touched it, it vanished into nothing. In a spur of the moment decision, I decided to bottle some of it, to investigate. Reaching inside a robe pocket, I withdrew a crystal phial and allowed an amount of the smoke to leach it's way inside. The strangest thing was, that once inside the phial, the smoke seemed to morph into the shape and appearance of a miniature grey snake, that almost seemed to hiss at me...it must be my imagination. Stowing the phial away in another pocket, I turned to look at the window. Sure enough, there was smoke pouring out of it, but only in dribs and drabs. I needed more windows. Looking around the room, I couldn't see any other windows, so I rushed out of the Room and allowed it to close itself off. Then I walked past it three times again.

_I need a place with lots of windows, I need a place with lots of windows, I need a place with lots of windows. _

I waited for the door to reappear, and then hurried back inside. Illuminating the room again, I could see that every wall was plastered with windows, and I darted around the room, opening every single one of them. The repellant gas gradually snaked its way out into the air, where it would vanish. After a few, long minutes, I could see the room around me. It wasn't a particularly good view. Every inch of the room was coated in an inch of soot and tar, and even though the windows were new additions, a thin layer of grime was already settling on them. _There must have been a bad fire here one day_.

"_Tergeo,_" I whispered, pointing my wand to the room in general. A layer of the dirt was siphoned off everything in the room, and at this point I realised how small the room I was standing in was. _We can't have a prom here, it's much too small!_ I sighed, and retreated from the room. Just as I turned to leave the corridor leading out from the Room of Requirement, I remembered that I needed to ask for the party room, like I had in the beginning, only this time maybe I could see something. Ambling back in front of the Room, I walked, then began to run, three times in front of it. _I need the place that's perfect for a prom. I need the place that's perfect for a prom. I need the place that's perfect for a prom._ The door reappeared and, making sure a new bubblehead charm was in place, I opened it. The air was still hazy, and I couldn't yet see clearly, however what I could see was incredible!

The entire area had multiplied in size, and a floor ideal for dancing was in place. Around the room four banners were hung, one on each wall, each with a House symbol emblazoned upon it. The ceiling was higher now than it had been with the windows, and had streamers draped from the rafters. There was a small stage at the front for something - maybe a band to play the music? _Mum was right. This is the perfect place._

Trouble was, even though it seemed as if the prom was already set up, the fire in here - or something very similar - had left its mark. Everything I could see was blackened, even the House banners - the colours were only distinguishable by their shades of grey - and the gas still lurked in every corner, every inch of the room. _If we have the prom here, I'm going to need to clear this place out._ Yet this was the perfect place - it even, I thought, had trees sprouting along the walls, with fairy lights and ribbon stung high amid leaves and branches. Just like I'd always dreamed of at a prom like this one could be. But it all had to go if I was going to get rid of the stench and the grime.

I stayed in the Room of Requirement a of couple of minutes longer, before realising, with a jerk, that I would most likely be late for class unless I left right that second. Thankfully, Hagrid wouldn't mind. Dashing down the stairs, two at a time, someone caught my eye.

"Sam!" I called out. Sam turned in my direction. He waved stiffly at me, then walked away again. _Why is he being so cool towards me all of a sudden?_ I jogged forwards to catch up with him, eventually breaking into a sprint - he was four floors below me. Unfortunately, I got caught on a moving staircase which only lead higher than I currently was, which slowed my descent down considerably.

"Sam, wait!" I panted, tired out from running down from the seventh floor to the first, accounting for interruptions. Sam did stop, but it seemed almost unwillingly. He stood awkwardly whilst I jogged the final few feet up to him. He ran a hand through his hair, looking agitated.

"What's wrong?" I whispered, now that he was right in front of me.

"Rose, do you actually like me?" he blurted out, as if the words had been building in his throat for ages, and they had just spilled out through his mouth like vomit. Indeed, he did curse under his breath the moment the words had passed his lips, as if irritated with himself. As for me, I was stunned. And not in the _stupefy_ sense.

"What do you mean?" I stammered, taking a step closer to him.

Sam closed his eyes. "I mean, do you honestly want to be together?" he muttered, slumping against a cold stone wall of the castle.

Bewildered, I replied. "Yes, of course I do. Why do you think that I don't?"

Sam opened his eyes, a lock of his dark hair drifting in front of them. "I like you, Rose - jeez, I don't think I've liked anyone this much before! But I just need to know if you like me, too. And I know how whiny, and pathetic this sounds, but sometimes I just feel like..."

Before he could continue, I leaned up and kissed him, my eyes open. Sam's around wrapped themselves around my back eagerly, pressing me into him, and his eyes closed. I twisted my fingers into his hair, wrapping them around the chocolate-coloured curls. A lot of things were right, but something was wrong. I couldn't quite name it. At this moment I closed my eyes, and I saw the missing piece of the puzzle. Finally, I got that warm feeling in the pit of my stomach. However, my imagination ran wild, and, unbidden, another face drifted into my mind. Their features were blurred, so I'd no idea who it was, but all I knew was that it felt so much nicer to dream I was kissing them than it really was kissing Sam...

My eyes snapped open. My lips were still pressed to Sam's, so slowly I disentangled myself from him. _What do I do? I can _not _think that again. And what about the warm feeling? I finally got it with Sam - am I really going to throw that away for the sake of...a fantasy?_

I leaned my forehead into Sam's. "I do like you. Never forget that," I murmured. I then speedily backed away, and hastened my way over the Care of Magical Creatures. By the time I arrived, Hagrid had already assembled the group around the creature of today's lesson. I think I must have been the only one who noticed how red and bloodshot his eyes were...

I couldn't concentrate on the lesson that day, or any of the lessons that followed. In Arithmancy, Professor Broentwight took away a house point for my apparent disregard to whatever she was saying. _Shame. I used to like her. _Professor Jollieminda also took away yet another point for me blowing up my cauldron in Potions, as I accidentally stirred my concoction in the wrong direction. _I suppose I kind of deserved that one_.

_Why do I have to feel so conflicted about this? I chose Sam. I want Sam._


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen:**

It was only on the first day of the holidays that I realised how quiet my Christmas was really going to be this year. Leanne and Mara were going back to their parents tomorrow. Lily and Albus were heading off to Albania with their parents and James - although they were coming over to ours for Christmas Dinner. Willa, Harriet and Sheila were all going off together to Paris. I was left at Hogwarts with my little brother. The odd thing was, I was really and honestly happy about this.

Not many people stayed at Hogwarts - just the handful of us that either had busy parents or wanted more time at the castle. _Or in Hugo's case, simply can't stand his parents and wants to have as little to do with them as possible._ On the morning that she was leaving, Mara approached me. She was glowing.

"Rose, could you give this to James? It's a Christmas present from me," she whispered, passing the package into my surprised hands. It was wrapped in simple brown paper, but somehow I thought James would prefer to brown paper to any king of fancy tissue. I nodded at her, stowing the parcel away in my bag, deciding to give it to James when we met up for lunch on Christmas Day. Leanne, Mara and I had all exchanged presents last night.

We all received entirely different things. Mara and Leanne had to be quite generous to each other, as they were twins and were expected by their parents to give larger presents. They had decided, however, not to do these presents while I was there, and instead save them for Christmas Day. Instead, Mara gave Leanne a Chocolate Frog, only when she opened it, she found that there was a note folded up inside, just as there had been on the first train ride to Hogwarts. I had joined them on a whim, since I'd thought they looked friendly. Instead of buying our snacks off the trolley, we'd bought them of another first year, a group of boys, and when we had opened the frog we found a secret message to Leanne written inside from one of the boys, who thought she was - and I quote - 'fit and gorgeous'. Mara had written the exact same note inside the frog this time, and we all laughed at the recollection. Leanne gave Mara a bracelet just like they one we'd seen a fifth-year give his girlfriend one time after a Quidditch match when they'd thought they were alone. We'd all - and by all I mean every single second-year girl - been peering at them gleefully from behind the rows of seats in the stadium. He'd given her the bracelet, she'd gasped with pleasure, and then...and then we'd all gossiped about what we'd seen afterwards for weeks. Then it had been my turn.

I handed over my presents to them first. To Mara I gave a scrapbook of every single thing related to us and Hogwarts I could find, and I gave Leanne a song that I had been working on for a while, documenting the best times we'd had at Hogwarts - for instance, the time we'd realised that all of the girls in our year were suddenly styling their hair in the same way as us. Leanne gave me a quilt of all our old uniforms or fabric equipments; I could even see an old pair of dragons hide gloves that I'd made everyone sign in Everlasting Ink when I outgrew them. _I'm not going to ask how she found them_.

Mara's present really surprised me. It was a really long letter, with pictures stuck along the side like a timeline, aging right from out first year to the near-disastrous trip to Oxford Street only a couple of weeks ago! There was a lot of personal stuff in it, alongside an awful lot of inside jokes. There was something at the end that surprised me, however. Mara had written;

_I know that things probably won't be the same next year, when we're both in different places. I won't see you so often, we won't talk as much. So there's something I'd like to say to you now, Rose. Right now, I can see you're making a really big mistake. And what's worse is I think I was the one who tried to talk you out of what I see clearly now was the right path for you. I want you to forget what I said, discouraging you, and go after what you actually want. I know you say you want what you have right now, but when two people have known each other as long as we have you can tell when they're lying, not only to you, but to themselves. Please be honest, Rose. For your sake. There's something out there that you need to fix right now, but I'm afraid that if I tell you what it is then that will be counter productive, or it won't be so fulfilling if - when - you get what you need. So instead I'm telling you this, in the hope that if you don't know already, you will know very soon what I'm talking about. And I hope that this will give you the courage to do what you have to do._

I didn't feel as if I could ask Mara what she'd meant by this - it was very cryptic and personal, almost as if it were in code. Leanne didn't know what was in the letter, and I didn't think I should really tell her, either, so really I couldn't ask anybody what it's true purpose was. To Mara, the contents of the letter were obviously meant to never be spoken of, only understood and acted upon. But I didn't understand. I didn't know what she meant by all of this - I felt I would be letting her down if told her I didn't understand.

I went back up to the dormitory and flopped down on my bed, face down. All my friends would be leaving soon, and I would be here. I wouldn't do any of the things I needed to do before they left of course, as that would take away things to do during the holidays. I began trying to work out what Mara had said to me in her letter, as I knew that would most likely take me all Christmas.

Even when all my friends had left, much of the time I was at a loose end. Sam had gone home for the holidays, but left me a present. I'd accepted it guiltily, later that night rummaging in my trunk to I find something - anything - I could fashion into a present. In the end I found an old, unused muggle object, a penknife that Granddad had given me. I had thousands of them - Granddad thought penknives were a very useful thing to have - but this one was particularly attractive. It had a crimson, ornate handle, with twist of painted gold twirling around on it. To make it seem more personal, I engraved it with Sam's initials at the bases of the blades with my wand and then placed it inside an old sock of Hugo's I transfigured into a penknife case - crimson to match the knife itself. Instead of giving him the next day, I waited until the day he left, so it would look as if I hadn't forgotten on the day he gave me my present, and had instead just been waiting for a good time. Sam seemed surprised when I handed over the present, yet pleasantly surprised as well. He kissed me goodbye, and again the instant I closed my eyes the toasty feeling was back, and there was this longing, this dream that I might be kissing someone else...

I swore in my head. _Next time, I'm keeping my eyes open._ The warm feeling in my stomach wasn't there when my eyes were open, but I couldn't allow myself to think like that whilst _kissing my boyfriend!_

The holidays passed in a dreamlike state for me. I spent most of my time in the Room of Requirement, clearing out the prom room. When I had gotten rid of the horrid smoke, there was this horrible, lingering stench of burn. I could only assume it had been Fiendfyre in the Room at some point - who knew how long ago? Presumably after my mother had left Hogwarts, as she hadn't warned me about all the fire's aftermath. And that would also explain the way the smoke I'd collected coiled into the form of snake in my phial - Fiendfyre often formed that kind of shape, so most likely the smoke had inherited some of its predecessor's appearance. It would also explain why it was now so hard to make the Room presentable! I always included multiple windows in the prom room now, as I would be working on both things at the same time. The windows would always be open whilst I worked on cleaning the interior. Cleaning the Room certainly kept me busy, and I knew it would definitely take me all holidays. I cleared away much of the surface muck, however even once all of that was gone, there was still _so_ much gunk remaining. I got bored of this easily, so, in the knowledge that I had all holidays and longer to clean it, I often left the Room in favour of going over to the kitchen and asking the house-elves for some picnic food. I invited Hugo to come down with me on multiple occasions, however he was perfectly contented lying on his bed listening to Muggle music on something called an _iPod_. I had tried listening to what he liked once, and immediately removed the offending _headphones _from my ears - the music sounded like a hormonal Mandrake!

_That is, if you could even call it music. _So instead I often found myself heading down towards the Black Lake alone, carrying an entire basketful of what the house-elves deemed 'an appropriate amount for a growing girl'. I didn't bother pointing out to them that I wasn't growing anymore.

Occasionally I saw Merpeople lurking beneath the waves, however I'd learnt not to disturb them. I would never want one of them screaming at me in Mermish ever again - that was an experience I never wanted to relive. As it was December, I ended up having most of my picnics on icy grass, or in the rain even, yet strangely I didn't even mind. It felt good to have nothing to do, and besides, getting myself dried off later would kill time.

One day, I was sitting by the lake on a surprising dry riverbank, when I heard a rustling beside me. _Maybe Hugo decided to come down from the dormitory and be sociable at last_.

"Hey," I said, cheerily and quietly at the same time.

"Hey," the person beside me echoed. My head whipped around, my crimson hair presumably smacking my companion in the face. We considered each other in silence for a minute or two. I then turned back to face the lake.

"So, have you decided that we're friends now, or are you just here to spite?" I asked, with more than an edge of anger in my voice.

Scorpius was quiet for a moment. "Well, I don't particularly want to be friends, but right now I'm at a bit of a loose end for alternatives," he muttered, finally. I scowled into the lake.

"So you're here because you have nothing better to do?" I hissed, getting angrier with him by the moment. _I thought he had infuriated me before! I spent so long hating him - I never knew what hatred even felt like!_ It took me a moment to register that he was speaking again.

"That's not what I said," he murmured, staring into his reflection on the rippling surface of the lake. I frowned, this time out of confusion.

"Then what did you say?" I asked, with quiet anger. Scorpius didn't reply. I looked at him, and instantly I felt as if there was a tiny bird in the centre of my chest, batting its wings ceaselessly against my ribcage, trying to break free. _This is exactly how I was feeling at the beginning of the year. Hating his words, liking his face. We've come around full circle_.

I changed the subject. "Why aren't you at home?" I asked, awkwardly, trying to keep the malice out of my voice. It came out all wrong, like I was accusing him of something.

Scorpius shrugged. "I never go home for Christmas, if I can avoid it. My parents don't exactly see eye to eye all the time, and I don't really feel like getting caught up in the middle of a shouting match over Christmas Dinner," he answered, airily. I was caught off guard by the amount of detachment he apparently felt to his parents.

"Why don't you like them, Scorp-ius?" I tripped at his name, adding on the 'ius' as I didn't feel like using his nickname at the current moment - things were too awkward between us right now to pretend as if the last few weeks hadn't even happened. _I think he noticed that I nearly called him by his nickname._

When he answered my question, he spoke nonchalantly. "I don't think they're very nice people. I'd say I preferred my mother, if I had particularly strong feelings about either of them. I used to think they were good. I liked them until I was around fourteen. Then I noticed how strange my world was, compared to say Albus', who was my best friend at the time. I noticed how my father never spoke to my mother unless absolutely necessary, how my mother would often elect to leave the house for days at a time, to be with her friends rather than her family. I don't blame her, I mean, we don't exactly have a cheerful household, but I don't thank her for it. She chose my father, and now she wishes she hadn't, as anyone can see. My father wishes he'd chosen someone else, too. But he was too late," he murmured, not moving his gaze from the lake. This startled me - Scorpius was speaking so uncaringly of his parents! I couldn't imagine feeling that level of distain for mine! I was actually speechless for a moment - _which, ask anyone, is a rarity_.

"Why are you even telling _me, _of all people, this? Why don't you tell someone who you actually like?" I asked, at a loss for something else to say. Scorpius sighed.

"Well, there's no reason I shouldn't tell you, for starters, and who else would I tell?" he snorted. "I have no friends. Not really. Not anymore," he muttered darkly, glaring at his reflection now with something resembling hatred. _I'd thought he and Albus were best friends!_

"What about Al?" I asked, puzzled. Scorpius groaned, then his skin coloured somewhat.

"We, er, had a fallout," he mumbled, looking ashamed. More than ashamed. For the first time since I'd met him, he looked foolish.

"About what?" I inquired. I was aware I was asking a lot of questions, practically giving Scorpius the third degree, but I wanted to know the answers. I felt something cold land on my cheek, and then something else on my shoulder. Gazing upwards, I saw little flakes of white swirling down onto us. _Snowflakes. First snow of the year._

Scorpius tilted his head in my direction, apparently fixating his gaze upon a snowflake that had landed on my eyelash. Self-consciously, I brushed it away, causing Scorpius to blink. He then shook his head, continuing where we had left off. "I don't want to think about it, and even if I did you are the last person I would tell," he muttered, now staring intently back into the depths of the river. I shot him a look of distaste. Within milliseconds Scorpius was looking right into my eyes, shaking his head like a wet dog. Several snowflakes had landed in his pale hair, like diamonds. They weren't melting, however. _Probably because his heart is too cold_.

"No! I don't mean it like that...Merlin, Rose! Do you know how hard it is to be around you sometimes?...You know what? Never mind. I should have never come here. Have a good Christmas, Rose," he spat, fury mingled with regret burning in his eyes. Now the snowflakes were melting, making his hair stick to his scalp. While I was thinking about this, Scorpius was storming off. _No, not storming. Retreating._

My goodbye lingered on the tip of my tongue. "Have a good Christmas too, Scorpius," I whispered into the snowflakes, before lying down in the snow to gaze up at the intricate pattern the snowflakes formed as they danced their way down to us from the heavens above.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen:**

Christmas Day. After a whirlwind of an Autumn term, it was finally Christmas Day. My favourite day of the year. My parents would be coming to collect me around ten o'clock, so I woke up early enough to go down to the Room of Requirement to open my presents with Hugo. He was disgruntled that I awoke him at seven in the morning, yet I knew he would be pleased with the results. He was muttering curses under his breath the entire way down, though, so maybe it would take longer for him to forgive than I'd originally though. Peeves was chanting a song from a distant corridor.

_"Deck the halls with stinky dungbombs_

_Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la_

_You should be smelly and not jolly_

_Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la_

_To be clean now is such folly_

_Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la_

_So deck the halls with stinky dungbombs_

_So Peevsy he can have a Christmas, jolly!"_

We were unfortunate enough to find him lurking in a corridor that was necessary to pass through to find the Room of Requirement once more. He squealed the instant he saw us.

"Ooh! Two itsy-bitsy students gone walk-about on Christmas Morning! Bah, humbug to you two! Have a present!" he screeched, dropping something on Hugo's head. It took me a second to realise what it was, while it was still in the air.

"Hugo, get that off your head now or I'll disown you!" I screamed, most likely waking the rest of the sleeping castle up. Hugo brushed the thing of his head instantaneously, and I saw Peeves laughing in the background. The dungbomb errupted a moment later, spewing its vomit-inducing stubstances into the air around us. Peeves cackled.

"Merry Christmas, Weasel-bys!" he chortled, before leaping off to avoid Filch's detection. As for us, I rammed Hugo's collar up so that it would block his nose and mouth, and, after doing the same to mine, rushed over to the Room of Requirement. Wordlessly, I beckoned to Hugo to run.

_I want a place to celebrate Christmas with Hugo. I want a place to celebrate Christmas with Hugo. I want a place to celebrate Christmas with Hugo. _The moment the door appeared, I yanked it open and rushed inside, slamming it shut behind Hugo and myself, closing us off from the offending, acrid air outside.

"Merlin's..." Hugo used one of his more colourful words here, that instantly earned him a slight smack on the shoulder. but I had to admit, he was pretty good at summing up what the Room had turned into for us. My mouth fell open.

"What in the name of Merlin's buttock..." I breathed in awe, prompting Hugo to chuckle slightly under his breath.

Every inch of the Room was decked to within an inch of it's life with holly, and red and green crepe paper. There was an enormous Christmas Tree, the same size as the one Hagrid towed in annually for the Great Hall. It was decorated too, with fairy lights and paper chains, and china decorations just like I used to make with Mum when I was a little girl. The hearth at the back of the room was spitting slightly, however it gave the room a warm, homey glow. There were stockings strung up on the fireplace as well, each apparently empty, yet extremely festive. No food, though. Not even one Christmas cookie or chestnut, ready to be roasted on the open fire. _Probably because its one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law._

Hugo darted to the middle of the room, dropping his presents in a heap upon the ground.

"This is amazing! Did you do this, Rose?" he laughed gleefully, spinning around, arms extended. I grinned at him, ecstatic at seeing him so pleased.

"No, I didn't do anything! It's the Room of Requirement, Hugo - whatever you want, the Room gets for you," I smiled, absentmindedly. Hugo grinned back at me, then seemed to remember his irritation with me, and suddenly scowled in an almost comically overdone manner.

"Well, let's just open this stuff before we get our real presents from Mum and Dad. I don't see why you had to wake me up so early, Rose - we have until ten o'clock to do this!" he muttered, yawning in an incredibly fake fashion. _Whatever his career is, Hugo will _not _be an actor!_ I laughed inside my head, ambling over to where Hugo stood to kneel down near the fire-place to open the presents.

We decided to save our presents to each other until we went back home, so instead we opened the presents from our friends. Sam had gotten me a perfume - it smelt strongly of a concoction of roses and cleaning fluid, but the bottle certainly looked expensive! He'd written a note too, that I didn't care to read in front of Hugo, who would almost certainly have teased me to within an inch of my life if he'd seen what Sam had written. I even felt like laughing at some of the things he'd put - _am I even dating a _boy_? This is kind of overdone..._Of course I didn't mention that to Hugo. _Now I feel bad. I didn't give Sam even a card._

Hugo opened one of his next. It was from one of his friends - but maybe _friend _is the wrong word. Follower might be a better description. Hugo is the undisputed leader of his group, and he has the people who follow him around. At one time I realised this wasn't dissimilar to what Dad had told me that Uncle Harry had told him about _Voldemort's_ time at Hogwarts - but then Hugo was never, ever a bully, nor was he one to discriminate, and did honestly like his supporters, so maybe friends was the correct word for them. Kurt had given him a _CD, _a Muggle object. Made of plastic, and it opened with a _click_, and inside was a disc you could fit around your finger like an extremely wide ring. _What a weird thing. _Hugo and his friends seemed to enjoy Muggle objects more than the average wizards their age, yet nobody cared at all, unlike they would have a few years ago - even though all humans have equal rights now, it was rather unusual for a wizard to take so strongly to a Muggle ways. Maybe it was inherited from Grandpa.

I opened another of mine. It was from Harriet, an original Fanged Frisbee, still in its faded packaging. You could see the date on it - _1994. _Twenty-eight years old. _It must have been expensive - I wonder how she knew I'd always wanted one? _Mum had never allowed me to have one when I was smaller, and the ones made nowadays were so tacky, but I'd always loved the old ones. My uncle, George, and my other uncle, Fred, used to produce them for their joke shop - but George was so affected when Fred died that he never put another batch on the shelves. Not that he lost out on the money - _Weasley's Wizard Wheezes _was soon to be becoming global, and money was certainly no object anymore.

Dave gave Hugo two Chocolate Frogs, and inside was..._oh no._ One of them had Dad's card inside.

_Ronald Weasley_

_For aiding Harry Potter and Hermione Granger in destroying the Horcruxes and subsequent defeat of Voldemort. Also for revolutionising the Ministry of Magic along with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger._

It had been Dad's proudest moment to be displayed on a Chocolate Frog card. Mum had one, too, as did Uncle Harry. I knew it was something to be proud of, but sometimes I just wanted a family-free chocolate frog card. Whilst Hugo and I had been moaning about finding yet another Ronald Weasley card, the Chocolate Frog escaped and jumped out of one of the windows I now permanently envisioned as a _requirement, _to keep the odour of burn at bay. Hugo opened the other Chocolate Frog instead, both of us holding our breath - we both exhaled sighs of relief when the card inside that one was revealed to be Morgen Le Fay.

Sheila seemed to have given me an extremely tight, corset-like top. Hugo had laughed when he saw it, and begged me to try it on in front of Dad to see what he would say. I laughed too, especially when I found the note inside saying;

_Thought it would make you laugh! _

Jamethon gave Hugo a turban. Hugo looked at it, then let it fall from his hands onto the floor, as if it contained something contagious. Willa gave me a book, entitled _Ten Fail-Safe Ways to Cast a Spell on Wizards._ It looked kind of old, and I had a feeling it wouldn't just be spells performed by a wand.

"What's that book called?" Hugo asked, as he rammed a Chocolate Frog into his mouth. I blushed, and quickly placed it underneath all the other presents.

"Skalander's Guide to Finding a Crumple Horned Snorkack," I muttered, thinking up random words to string in a rough sentence. When Hugo raised his eyebrows incredulously, I elaborated slightly. "It's just a joke book. Newt Scamander, _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_, and we know from Luna Scamander that Crumple Horned Snorkarcks don't exist," I stammered, irriatated with myself that I was incapable of thinking of a better book.

Hugo opened his last present, from Jones. Jones' first name was Hepolitoaman, but naturally he didn't want anybody calling him that, so he commonly masqueraded by his second name. I checked my watch, and realised we had only ten minutes left. _Wow. Who knew time could fly when it's spent with my little brother?_ I stood up to leave, and was about to tell Hugo to do the same, when he muttered, "You've still got one left, Rose."

I looked down, caught off guard. Who else would have given me a present? I'd opened the presents from all of my friends, and was saving the family ones for later today. Yet, sure enough, there was one last present on the floor, addressed to me. I shrugged and knelt down on the floor again, in a bit of a rush for time. I picked up the present and examined it. It was wrapped in red tissue paper that matched the shade of my hair exactly, and there was a emerald green ribbon tied around it in a rather messy knot. There was a note, written on some old parchment, attached. It read;

_You're welcome. _

Curiously, I began to unwrap my final present. I had a quick tussle with the knot, pulling and twisting the ribbon, before it was finally free, and I gently pulled apart the tissue paper to reveal what lurked underneath. For a moment I could sense a bell ringing somewhere within the deep recess' of my mind. I was fleetingly bewildered as to whether this object had any significance. Then I knew.

The broken silver shoe that lay in my lap surrounded by red tissue paper was the one I had nearly died picking up at Oxford Street.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen:**

_How did someone find it? Who found it? Were they the one who saved me from being hit by a car?_

My eyes must have been the size of galleons by now, as Hugo looked quite alarmed.

"What's so special about an old shoe?" he asked loudly, in a failure of an attempt to break the awkward silence. I didn't reply for a moment, then shook my head to clear it.

"Nothing. Just a crap present," I muttered, quickly covering it again in the wrappings. I stuffed it at the bottom of my bag of presents, also trying to stuff it at the bottom of my brain. How could I not wonder about something like that? Who sent it? I tried to ignore my niggling thoughts and quickly left the Room, dragging Hugo along with me in the way Lily dragged me along.

We were just about to leave the Entrance Hall when I remembered something. Something that didn't feel right. Not at Christmas.

"Tell Mum and Dad I forgot something, and I'll be there in a second," I hissed at Hugo, turning right around and breaking into a brisk walk. I ignored Hugo calling after me, and to get back faster I jogged my way down to the kitchens. I tickled the pear so quickly it leapt right out of its position in the painting, knocking over a few grapes. I scampered into the kitchen, where a host of house-elves were waiting to greet me.

"Oh, hello, Miss Weasley, and a Merry Christmas to you!" they squeaked in unison, all puffing their chests up beneath their rags. I smiled.

"Hi. Listen, can you do me a favour?" I asked the crowed in general. They seemed more excited than usual today at seeing me. _I suppose the mustn't get many visitors on Christmas Day._ The entire host of house-elves nodded, ears flapping up and down, up and down.

"Can you send a basket of nice, Christmasy food to Scorpius Malfoy please? And not tell him who asked you to send it to him," I added, blushing at the thought of Scorpius knowing that I didn't absolutely hate him. He didn't seem to have a nice idea about Christmas, or have good experience with it, so I wanted to do something nice for him. _Because it's Christmas._ Most of the house-elves nodded eagerly, and darted off to prepare some food for him. Some of them looked perplexed.

"Mr Malfoy, Miss Weasley? Are you mistaken?" one squeaked at me, than clamped its hands over its mouth and began slapping itself. I instantly rushed over to the poor little house-elf, and grabbed its arms to prevent it from hitting itself.

"No, I'm not mistaken. It's his father that's not very nice, not him. He needs to have something good about Christmas, he's all alone this year. I just wanted to do something nice on Christmas Day for him," I whispered, blushing as the words tumbled out of my mouth. The remaining house-elves nodded at me, and then hurried off to help with the hamper. I felt a tug at the bottom of my dress.

"Would Miss Rose like some food today?" an especially small female house-elf piped up, smiling at me. I smiled back down at her.

"Not today. Maybe you could make yourself something really nice instead, for a Christmas present," I whispered to her. Her face lit up at the prospect of having something 'really nice', not because it would be such a rarity to her, but because that's just what house-elves were like - they blame themselves excessively when they think they've been bad, and glow when they think about something good. I still wanted them to have more rights, like my mother had taught me to, but I did know that they didn't actually mind working, and in fact they enjoyed it.

"Bye, everyone!" I called out, and I received a few squeaked goodbyes in return. I then hurried out of the kitchen, safe in the knowledge that Scorpius would have one nice thing at Christmas this year. Now I needed to go and have my own Christmas.

Mum and Dad were waiting at the gates with Hugo. After we'd exchanged the customary greetings, we walked down together - Mum doing most of the talking - to where it was safe to apparate. We'd take Hugo in a Side-along, as he was the only underage one here. After the awful squeezing sensation had passed, I smelt homemade cookies, still warm from the oven, and I knew I was home.

It seemed like forever since I'd been here, within these blue walls with the pictures of me and Hugo with various family members plastered over every inch of them. I hadn't sat on this old, tattered green sofa since the summer, and I hadn't seen my room for what felt like an unendurable amount of time. But my room could wait. Because in a moment, Mum would walk through the living-room door with mugs of hot chocolate flying in front her, like every Christmas, and Dad would give us a Chocolate Frog - secretly hoping that we would give him the card.

When we were all seated on the old rug that had been in my dad's house when he was our age, we began to open the presents. Hugo opened one of his first. He gasped in pleasure. They'd given him a Nimbus 2023, and the gleam of the polished wood and the arch of the bristles clearly showed it was brand new.

"How did you afford it?" he breathed in admiration, stroking the broom in a loving caress. Mum and Dad smiled smugly at each other.

"Well, you'd be surprised at how well off your mother's promotion got us," was all he said. I didn't bother to ask any more - a present was a present, and if we weren't broke then it was all fine. I gave Mum a box of homemade chocolates and an old picture I'd found in the bottom of my trunk that I'd framed for them. I knew that it would be hanging on the wall, pushing for space, before the day was out. I gave dad a collage of the Chocolate Frog Card that had him emblazoned on them, arranged - and enchanted - so that they even resembled his face. Dad laughed when he saw it, and so did Mum, but I knew she would never allow him to hang it anywhere. Hugo gave Dad a pair of maroon suede gloves - much to Dad's chagrin about the colour - and then he gave Mum a long, burnt orange woolly scarf. Maybe I was wrong about Hugo's acting career - he was good at pretending he thought that they could honestly like the presents. Then, finally, it was my turn. My present looked especially interesting, as there were a few little, squishy ones attached to a long parcel, as long as Hugo's broom! I put the little ones down, saying I'd open them later. Then I tore the wrapping off the big one. _What could they have gotten me? I don't even know myself what I wanted this year._ When the paper was finally in shreds on the ground, I saw a huge, irregularly shaped case. Curious, I unzipped it. There inside the case, lay a polished, gleaming, birch acoustic guitar. I gasped in pleasure. I'd always wanted one since I was a little girl and I'd seen a man on the street playing one, making a strange yet comforting music. I'd forgotten all about it until now, but suddenly the passion to play the guitar was back, and instantly it was in my arms, ready to be played. Dad laid a cautioning hand on it's neck.

"Rose, for the sake of our ears, please don't play it until you've read the booklet about _how _you actually play it properly," he warned, smiling as I'd evidently loved their present. Seeing the reason in this, I put the guitar back in it's case.

The other few presents I received paled in comparison to my guitar- an assorted bag of sweets from Honeydukes from Hugo, and a pale, dusty rose pink knitted v-necked jumper from Grandma and Grandpa. My grandmother and grandfather in Australia had sent some things over as well - a shopping voucher and a necklace. I had only ever met them a couple of times - when Mum was my age, she had made them move to Australia and forget about her so that she could go off with Dad and Uncle Harry. Afterwards, when she'd lifted the spell on her parents, they had decided that they really like life in Australia and decided to live there full time. I rarely saw them, however they never failed to send Christmas and birthday presents. I hoped this year, that on my birthday - July the twenty-eighth - they would remember that I was in fact turning eighteen, and would not send me a Baby Annabelle doll.

There was a knock at the door, and I rushed to open it, because we all knew who it was. Whamming open the door, Lily, Albus, James, Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny and Hagrid were standing there, Albus' hand still raised where it had been a moment ago when he'd been knocking.

"Merry Christmas!" they chorused, laughing at Albus' face.

"Merry Christmas!" I replied, grinning at them. Lily had an armful of presents, and for the first time in weeks her face was entirely clear of make-up - as if she'd be stupid enough to wear the amount she usually does in front of her parents! Funny thing was, she looked an awful lot nicer without layers of foundation slathered over her features. She thrust the presents into my arms, and then stalked inside first, going to greet Hugo. I allowed Aunt Ginny to give me a hug, Uncle Harry and James to pat my shoulder and Albus and I just stood around awkwardly until one of us would say hello first and we would burst out laughing.

The Potters gave me pair of boots I'd pointed out to Lily when she'd taken me out shopping with her over the holidays - I'd thought they were nice, Lily had commented they were too wintry to be worn yet. _Funny how she remembered._ Hagrid gave me a new Wizard's Chess set, that Dad started eyeing up eagerly.

Christmas Dinner was great. The turkey was plump and roasted to perfection, the potatoes were crisp on the outside and feathery on the inside, and the contents of the crackers zoomed around over our heads whilst we ate. The only failure were the sprouts - Hugo had put them in the oven when we'd first arrived, and although he denied it, he'd clearly added an awful lot of alcohol to the buttery sauce we'd left them to soak in. Needless to say, Hagrid, Hugo and Lily were the only ones to eat not only their sprouts, but everyone else's now that they's been spiked.

I loved Christmas for this reason. It was always so happy, so jolly, and it was the one time of the year that Hugo didn't openly argue with our parents. Even Lily was nicer - she liked the fact that she got lots of presents from her various beaus - that she always hid from her parents under her bed.

I liked Christmas because of all that - it was just Christmas, and I honestly couldn't imagine a time more happy, more gleeful or perfect to spend with family.

I slept in my own room that night, finally at home within the whitewashed stone walls that I covered in photographs of my friends, my family and things I just liked. My mural of everything I loved best that I'd painted onto the wall next to my bed - Hogwarts, home, music, my friends and family, just random images - seemed to radiate my happiness back at me, and almost glow in the dark of a room with the curtains pulled shut. I curled up under my old, faded Holyhead Harpies duvet that Aunt Ginny had given to me - it had been a freebie from her time on the team - and felt so warm inside, a feeling I only got at Christmas. Something was marring this cozy feeling, though - a thought that drifted into my mind unbidden. I pictured Scorpius, surrounded by other people on Christmas Day, yet totally alone, stuck at Hogwarts, neglected. I'd never pitied anyone in this way before - it wasn't fair, for me to be so happy and he so not. _But,_ I thought, as I began to drift into unconsciousness, _I did send him the food basket._


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen:**

I went back to Hogwarts around midday on Boxing Day, taking all of my new presents with me. Hugo came back with me, eager to get away from our parents - they'd had a fight over breakfast in the morning. Hugo had been yelling that they didn't understand him, and why did they have to be so - _something_ - famous and stuck up all the time when all he wanted was to be a normal fifteen year old. Dad had bellowed that they'd done what they'd had to do - Mum had started crying - Hugo had stormed out into the bitter wind. _Same old, same old._ Mum and Dad had said goodbye to me, and attempted to say goodbye to Hugo, however he had stiffened and looked pointedly out of the window. I sighed silently out of exasperation - _why can't they all be civil to one another? _Hugo had gone first, stepping into the fire and dropping the powder, muttering "Hogwarts," as quickly as he could. I lingered to say goodbye to my parents properly, then I followed him into the viridescent flames. Almost upon the instant I was emerging from the fireplace in Professor MacPhersonis' office, back at Hogwarts.

The rest of the holidays passes in a daze. I avoided Scorpius, and he in turn avoided me. I did hope he'd had an alright Christmas, though, even if I didn't particularly like him. Before I knew it, all of my friends were back at the castle too, one day before term started. Lily and Albus returned, too. I saw them almost instantly.

"Rose," Lily whispered, determinedly. "Get Hugo now, and meet us in the passageway to Honeydukes."

I laughed, thinking that she must surely be joking. Lily didn't move her gaze from my eyes, stony-lipped. Al was grinning too, although he tried to hide it. I realised Lily was serious.

"What for?" I asked, chuckling slightly. Lily locked her eyes with mine, a stare full of implications. I realised. _Oh. The trick thing she'd planning._ "Sure, Lily, I'll be there in a minute," I muttered, looking over my shoulder to check that no-one overheard us. Lily smirked, and then grabbed Al's arm at the elbow and walked away. I winced. _I hate it when she does that to people_. I had just turned away too, when I heard Lily calling.

"Oh, by the way, I asked another person to be there, too. I'll explain it all later," she yelled, whilst the staircase she and Albus were standing in the middle of swung around, it's cold, beige stone finally meeting with a landing. I frowned, but I couldn't be bothered to ask her anymore - chances are it was just Aphelia, who wanted in on the action.

Hugo had already retreated to his dormitory, so ignoring the strange looks I got from all the boys as I strolled up the stairs, I casually opened the door to Hugo's dormitory, paraded past his friends - sashaying my hips all the way there for their benefit - and looked at Hugo directly in eye.

"Hugo, come with me," I murmured, fluttering my eyelashes and pouting slightly as Hugo's fifth year friends gazed up at me - I'd put on make-up today to kill time, and judging by Jamethon's expression, it was most certainly paying off. Hugo ignored my teasing his classmates, shrugged and ambled out of the room a few feet behind me. _I can't resist it. _Just before I closed the door, I looked Jamethon straight in his horrible murky brown eye and winked suggestively. Just before the door shut behind me, I saw Jamethon's face had lit up. _I think he think's he pulled._

"Where are we going, Rose?" Hugo as soon as we were out of earshot of his peers.

"Honeydukes passage, to talk to Lily about our plans," I whispered as a gaggle of fourth-years pranced their way past us - I noticed they were all sporting the same hairstyle I'd had yesterday.

We walked along in an awkward silence, both of us reliving the tense Boxing Day morning. I didn't want to talk about it, but there was nothing else _to_ talk about - so I said nothing. When we reached the One-Eyed Witch, the opening to the passage was already revealed - Lily and Al must have already arrived. I climbed down, Hugo at my heels, and walked on a short distance before a swish of auburn hair flashed from around a corner. Turning it, I saw Al leaning against a wall, looking bored and irritated and Lily pacing impatiently. When she saw me and Hugo she let out a groan.

"Why did you make us wait for so long?" she hissed at me, her eyes blazing with not just a spark but an inferno of fury. I rolled my eyes.

"We were ten minutes, tops!" I sighed, shrugging. Lily opened her mouth to say something, then closed it.

"Whatever. We're just waiting for one more person, and then I think we'll head over to the Hogs Head to discuss plans," she sighed, checking her watch.

"Why do we need to go to the Hogs Head?" I asked, vaguely annoyed that we had to go so far away just to talk about our plans. Lily looked at me as if was an idiot.

"As if we need any nosy first years snooping in on us down here!" she practically shrieked, so loudly that the 'nosy first years' would be able to here every word from a mile away. I did have to concede her point, though. Lily look right over my head.

"Oh, good! He's here, _finally_!" she breathed, sarcastically. _I'm really struggling to like Lily right now._ _Wait...she said he. It's not Aphelia._

I turned, wondering who it could be. _Of course. Who else? Just my luck._ I sighed, cringing slightly. The boy sauntering up to us looked surprised to be included in our little gathering, yet totally at ease, swaggering along, hand tucked in his pockets, his hair swaying gently in the breeze created when he walked. _Of course it's Scorpius._

"Hey. Let's get moving, I think Filch saw me sneaking over here," he muttered, looking at me whilst saying every word. I blushed under his gaze, and suddenly the floor seemed very interesting. Lily smiled up at him sarcastically, and he smirked back at her briefly, only to return his stare to me. Lily then flounced off towards the end of the passageway, Hugo, Al, Scorpius and I trailing in her wake. Not one of us uttered a word whilst we were walking. It was a relief to get into the Hogs Head finally and order our drinks, so we had something to do rather than look at our companions uncomfortably. Lily took a swig of her Butterbeer, than banged her hands down on the table, causing my own drink to spill.

"Let's get straight down to it. I want to put on a show," she announced.

"Like a play?" Hugo asked, bewildered. Lily smirked.

"Sort of, but we're the only actors, and the entirety of Hogwarts is our stage," she grinned, looking proud of herself.

"What kind of show? What are we actually going to have to do?" I asked, folding my arms, glancing sideways at Al, who was glaring stonily at Scorpius, who was glaring back with equal vigour.

"I've had a lot of time to think about it. I've tweaked, and studied, and practically written what you guys are going to say!" she laughed. I raised my eyebrows, waiting for my question to be answered. I took a nonchalant sip of my Butterbeer. Lily leaned forward into the table, her hand clasped in a relaxed fashion on the roughcast teak of the tabletop.

"Look at us. Who are we?" she whispered.

"A bunch of teenagers," Hugo muttered, staring at his lap.

"Just ordinary kids," Scorpius put forth.

"Mini witches and wizards," I spluttered, halfway through swallowing my drink

"A bunch of weirdos," Albus chuckled, shaking his head. Lily scowled.

"No! We are our parent's children!" she hissed, annoyed that one of us hadn't said that. Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"You don't say," he drawled, looking at her sarcastically. Lily gave her head a quick, sharp shake.

"No, not like that!" she hissed, flapping a hand in the air. "I mean, we all inherited definite...qualities from our parents," she muttered, lifting a lock of her ginger Weasley hair to examine the sleek, gossamer strands.

"You mean Scorpius' dad's quality of being a -" Al swore loudly, causing Aberforth to look at out table, startled. Lily raised her perfectly plucked eyebrows.

"If you say so, Al. But what I mean is, everyone at school thinks we're like our parents. Not just in our appearance - in our characteristics. A defining role of..._most, _of our parent's lives at Hogwarts," here she looked pointedly at Scorpius, who said nothing, "was fighting evil. Merlin knows we've never had a chance to do that, they did such a good job. I propose this year, we change that," she grinned slyly, leaning back into her chair, and folding her arms across her white, see through, clingy vest top - completely inappropriate for this time of year, when the snow upon the ground lay thick and heavy like a sheet of some indescribable, pure white precious metal.

"If I remember right, the last time any of us tried that, I ended up the Hospital Wing," Hugo quipped, frowning, yet laughing at himself at the same time. I furrowed my eyebrows - that had been no laughing matter! Lily, however, looked unconcerned.

"Yes, but let's face it Hugo, you acted rashly. I - _we_, on the other hand, have months to prepare and plan everything to exact details so that no one will be injured this time," she shrugged. There was a pause.

"Ok, ok, I get what _we_," Al gestured to Lily, Hugo, himself and me," are doing here - our parents fought Dark Wizards when they were our age, so you want to make everyone think we do the same thing. But what is _he _doing here?" Albus spat, pointing rudely at Scorpius with his middle finger. Scorpius looked at Al. "Isn't it obvious?" he drawled, lifting his pale, almost invisible eyebrows. "At school, your parents were the good guys, and mine were the bad guys. Well," he paused for dramatic effect, leaning back into the thin frame of his chair. "I'm here to be the bad guy."

"But, won't that make everyone hate you?" Hugo asked, looking perplexed. Scorpius let out a sad laugh, and brushed a platinum blonde lock away from his dark green eyes. He leant back even further, slumping against the back of his chair.

"Everyone already hates me, thanks to your cousin," he muttered, looking at the ceiling. "So I'm really in no risk of losing a good reputation."

"Yeah, but at the end, when we get him on our side, it's going to totally rehabilitate his image at the school, so everyone wins!" Lily chimed in, as she hadn't spoken for a while. Scorpius nodded once.

"And how long until the end?" Hugo asked, shaking his greasy hair in front of his face. Lily bit her lip at this point.

"Well, the whole thing will finish in July, just before we finish the school year. I was thinking we could finish just before the day that Rose has oraganised a prom for the seventh-years, so that no-one thinks badly of anybody at an event that should be happy," she smiled, looking oddly sweet and innocent considering what we were all talking about.

"You're organising a prom?" Albus and Scorpius asked at the exact same time, with the exact same expression on their face - incredulousness. I shrugged, as if to say, _so what?_ and pointed back to Lily, who was itching to carry on with her story.

"Anyway, so yes, Scorpius will be playing the bad guy for a little bit, but then we'll totally credit you at the end, and tell everybody that you're completely innocent!" she assured Scorpius. He nodded.

"So, what are we doing?" I whispered, asking the question on everyone's lips. Lily smiled wryly, and I knew she would give us the answer this time.

"We're going to make everyone believe Scorpius is trying to bring Lord Voldemort back from the dead," she whispered fervently, looking as if it were the best idea ever.

For a moment there was stunned silence.

"You can't be serious!" Hugo exclaimed.

"Are you mad, Lily?" Al bellowed.

"What are you thinking?" I cried.

Lily's eyes widened, disappointed with the reception of her idea.

"What's wrong?" she asked, really not knowing.

"You could really hurt someone with that plan!" Hugo cried, angrily.

"Nobody will ever forgive Scorp!" Albus yelled at her, banging his fist down on the table.

"Lots of people lost family members to Voldemort, it could really upset them!" I shrieked. _Including us,_ I realised with a pang._ Uncle Fred never emerged from the war._

Lily let out a surprised laugh. "No, that's where you're all wrong! We're no going to go around actually _saying _that's what he was doing, we just going to pretend it! Then, right at the end, we'll say Scorpius was Imperiused and hadn't meant to do it! No one will get upset, and at the end we'll reveal it was just to create a bit of gossip and excitement!" she giggled, not seeing the point.

"But nobody will think it's funny in the end, Lily. People don't like to make fun of death, it will seem as if we're mocking them," I whispered. Lily shrugged. "But we're not - look, we'll explain to the teachers that it was all done to make things more exciting for the kids who were stressed about exams, and we don't necessarily have to tell the children it was hoax - just let them believe we saved Scorpius from himself!" Lily explained. _This makes more sense, but..._

"But I don't see how the professor's will like it," Al muttered under his breath, taking the words right out of my mouth. Lily looked at us.

"Well, I did my research. Turn's out MacPhersonis is a fan of the dramatic arts - we'll tell her we were rehearsing for a play and they'll totally be on our side! They can't disagree with the Headmistress," she chuckled, pointing out the obvious. I pondered this. _It is true that MacPhersonis wanted to introduce a school play every year, but her idea was shot down as it had failed miserably before when there was too much backstage drama._

"We could tell her we wanted to perform it as a school play," I murmured. Lily smiled serenely at me.

"See! Rose gets it now, so you all can too!" she smiled at every single one of us, sweeping the table with a grin.

"We could say that we wrote lines," Hugo suggested.

"And choreographed the sequences," Albus added, nodding. Lily grinned.

"See? It's all going to be amazing," she breathed, glowing with pride. We all slowly nodded.

"So, how are we going to let the whole school know what's going on?" I asked. This question had been praying on my mind for a while. If it was just us who knew about what was happening, then how would we get the whole school in on it without them knowing it was a ruse?

"Oh, we'll just have a lot of loud, _secret _conversations," Lily waved a hand in the air, nonchalantly, "Does anyone have any more questions for me?"

"How will I convince everyone that I'm trying to bring Voldemort back from the dead?" Scorpius asked. Lily grinned.

"I'll tell you in secret, Scorp. I want these guys to be surprised when they see it for the first time," she said, sweetly. _Shame. I don't want us to be scared by what she's planned._

"How are we going to make Scorpius look guilty?" Albus asked, half raising his hand into the air, as if he were in class asking Professor Binns a question.

"We're going to choreograph a duel between you two," Lily pointed her wand at Al and Scorpius, "and he's going to attempt to bring Voldemort back in front of the entire school,"

"Who Imperiused Scorpius?" Hugo asked, quietly. Lily opened her mouth, then shut it again. The combination of her flaming ginger locks and her opening and shutting mouth made her look bizarrely like an overgrown goldfish.

"I'll pretend I don't know if anyone asks, but let's just say for this that it was my Grandfather, Lucius. He can't admit it, but he was a huge supporter of Voldemort back when he was powerful. He just pretends he was Imperiused," Scorpius muttered, saving Lily from the point she hadn't thought about, still staring at his greyish, faded trainers. Lily, Hugo, Albus and I exchanged a look, basically saying to each other that we all knew this was common knowledge, yet too polite to say so. _Wow, Lily being considered polite. First time for everything, I suppose._

"Ok, yes. Lucius Malfoy. Any other questions?" Lily asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence before it grew too long.

"When do we start?" I asked quietly, looking down at my lap. Everyone turned to look at Lily - this was the kind of situation Lily thrived in. Being the absolute and undisputed centre of attention, with people hanging on her everyone word. She pursed her lips, smirked, and tossed her fiery hair over her shoulder so that it rippled like tongues of crimson flames.

"Tomorrow," she hissed, sounded like a spitting fire - a spitting fire kindled by Professor MacPhersonis, that we would surely burn in if this plan went wrong.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen:**

The pulsating throng of children carried us along the corridor. Lily and I were searching for a spot to put the first part of the plan into action. Lily shoved her way through the first-years, only pausing to flash her dark, kohl rimmed eyes at all of the older boys. I rolled my eyes every time she did that - I knew for a fact that she didn't even know any of their names.

I saw Lily gesture to me, smiling, beckoning me over, and I knew she'd found our spot. I turned a corner, and it was just right. Most of the other children had left the corridor, however a couple were still running through, and there was a great spot for eavesdroppers just around the corner. Lily pulled me along, but gently - this proved that the acting had begun.

Lily stood up on tiptoe to whisper to me; "I've told a couple of second-years to do something that will mean they had to pass through this corridor, they should be here any minute."

A few seconds later, we could hear a clatter of footsteps, hurrying to get someplace. "Hurry up, we need to get these over to Hippelby really quickly!" a voice drifted through the corridors. They weren't close enough yet - a few more seconds.

"Why do we have to?" another voice moaned. _Closer..._

"Because _Lily Potter _told us to, and she's a fifth-year! We don't want to get on her bad side!" the other voice whispered. I nodded at Lily, who was smiling at the girl's gullibility - they were close enough.

"What did you want to ask me?" I sighed, quietly, as if hoping not to be overheard, but loudly enough to ensure that the girls approaching could hear my voice - we'd already scripted the entire conversation.

"I just wanted to know if, well...if you'd noticed any odd behaviour from Scorpius," Lily hissed loudly, seemingly reluctant to ask. I heard a _shush _coming in the direction of the two girls, and the footsteps had stopped - they were listening.

"Scorpius Malfoy?" I asked, pretending to be confused.

"How many other Scorpius' do you know?" Lily asked, as if disbelieving. There was a bit of a scuffling sound from the two girls.

"Well, I don't know...maybe, I don't really know him that well," I said, maybe a bit too loudly for it to be a _secret _conversation. "Why do you ask?"

Lily hesitated - unlike my brother, Lily was an extremely good actress. I could tell the girls were listening intently now. The tension in the area had thickened, even for someone who knew what was happening.

"Is that Lily?" one of them whispered. The sound of a kick followed.

"Well, I just thought..." Lily paused for dramatic effect, as if we hadn't heard the girls, "That he was acting kind of suspiciously."

I pretended to get vaguely angry. "Just because of who his father is, it doesn't mean you can't trust him. He's a really nice guy, Lily!" I sighed dramatically.

"What? No, I don't care about that! I just noticed he wasn't friends with Al anymore, and that, well...he's been sneaking out of grounds an awful lot," Lily whispered. I forced a laugh.

"Lily, I'm sure it's nothing. Look, I'll keep an eye on him, but what do you expect him to be doing?" I asked.

"That's the thing, Rose. I _don't know _what he's doing," she sighed, sounding stressed.

I paused before answering, listening to check that the girls were still there - I could still detect their soft breathing, hanging on every word we spoke.

"Don't tell anyone about this, Lily," I muttered. Lily nodded in an exaggerated gesture, so that the second-years could hear the rustling. Then we walked off together. As we walked off, I heard the girls hissing; "Did you hear that? What's Scorpius Malfoy _doing_? Let's ask Molly if she knows anything! And let's ask Hannah, too!"

I looked to my left at Lily - she was smirking.

"That went well I think," she said nonchalantly, flicking a strand of long hair over her shoulder.

"Are you sure about all this, Lily?" I asked, thinking yet again about the effect this would all have on Scorpius. Lily laughed loudly.

"Relax, Rose! The school hasn't had a good mystery in years! Not in our time! Now they'll think they have," she said, confidently. I smiled, uncertain, back at her. Then I strolled over to Care of Magical Creatures, about forty-five minutes early. I saw that the lights were on in Hagrid's hut, however his thick, coarse curtains were drawn shut, and he didn't want to be disturbed. I settled on sitting down a little way off, contented by twisting the dry, cracked leaves that had fallen to the frosty ground into shapes in front of my eyes, and even at one point arranging them into a small, silent performance solely for my entertainment. _How simple everything would be if my life could be shaped so quickly and easily as the leaves_. I made them soar high into the air, the dead leaves brought back to life, it seemed, rejuvenated, as they danced a complicated routine that only they knew the steps to, they were acting of their own accord, they were dancing, dancing, dancing, higher and higher, they wouldn't stop, I knew, until they finally reached where they were destined to be - among the stars.

"You're good at that," came a voice. The sound broke the magic. The leaves fell back down to the ground, dry and cracked and as dead as they had been earlier.

"Thanks," I whispered, looking straight into Sam's face. Sam smiled at me.

"Can you do it again?" he asked, gesturing to the leaves. I shook my head.

"I don't think it would feel the same second time around," I shrugged, failing at being nonchalant.

Sam sauntered over to where I was sitting down, my back against a tree. He leaned against the tree, looking down at me. _He's the perfect boyfriend. _We stayed against the tree together in silence for a few minutes.

"Are you feeling ok?" he asked, suddenly.

Startled by the disruption, I replied. "Of course I am. Why do you think I'm not?" Sam grimaced, looking as if he didn't want to say. "Why don't you want to tell me?" I asked quietly, so as not to disrupt the tranquility once again.

"I don't want to," he muttered, shaking his head once. I shrugged.

"So then don't tell me. Oh, and by the way, Quidditch practice at five tomorrow, could you tell Hepiliya?" I remembered. I'd managed to get most of the team aware of the practice, but I just needed Hepiliya and Aphelia to be told, too - I'd get Lily to tell Aphelia. _I should have asked Lily to tell her when I was with her earlier._

Sam nodded, very definitely, as if just waking up from a dream and being thrust back into reality. "Yeah, sure. When's the next match?" he queried. I bit my lip, racking my brain.

"I _think_ it's in just over a month, against Ravenclaw," I murmured. We were stuck in an awkward silence for a few minutes.

"Have you noticed how much work they're giving us now?" Sam broke the silence - this time I was grateful.

I moaned. "Yes! I know the NEWTs are coming up, but I feel like it's completely unreasonable! From yesterday alone, I have to write three essays, read four chapters for Potions _and _practice making Felix Felicis, then for Transfiguration I need to complete a graph of which objects transfigure best into others..." I trailed off, as it had occurred to me that I'd been talking quickly and about not very an interesting subject. Sam's eyes had glazed over a bit, however he snapped out of his trance the moment I looked up at him.

"Bad luck," was all he said. I nodded. Then, before we could have a chance to descend into another awkward silence, I stood up to leave.

"Care of Magical Creatures starts soon, I'd better get going. Do you have another free period now?" I asked Sam. He shook his head.

"No, I have Divination. See you," he smiled. I stood up on tiptoe to peck his cheek, then scampered off to class, where hopefully Hagrid would coherent enough to be able to teach us. I didn't like to mention his drinking to other professors, as it was frowned upon, if not against school policy, but he was going through a tough time - he needed a bit of convalescence. Even if it did come from a bottle.

There were only a few other people there by the time I arrived. I was actually on time exactly, however everyone was now aware that Hagrid wouldn't emerge from his hut for at least another ten minutes.

"Rose, we might need to, er, talk," hissed a voice in my ear. I jumped at the familiarity. I nodded, and let Scorpius walk in front of me so as to lead me somewhere more private. _We need to talk, but I'm just not sure what about._

Scorpius stopped a few metres away from where we had been before, just behind Hagrid's hut. I leant against the wall, for once actually calm, and Scorpius leant beside me, slightly on edge.

"Listen, Rose," he began.

"Are we friends?" I interrupted him - this was the most important question in my opinion.

Scorpius hesitated. "Sort of. Not really. I don't want to be, but there's no other option, really," he said finally. I nodded - after the way he had treated me in the past, I had to agree I shared his views, and understood why he felt that way. _I just don't understand why he treated me like that in the first place._

"So we're allies in the plan with Hugo, Al and Lily, but afterwards...I think it would be best if we just stopped being friends afterwards. To be honest, it's doing my head in, Scorp - I can't figure out what you want me to do!" I sighed, meaning every word. Scorpius froze, transfixed on some distant object or vision. A few moments later he let out a sigh.

"Forget to breath, there?" I asked, jokingly. Scorpius let out a quiet chuckle.

"Something like that," he muttered, grinning and shaking his head. I sighed again.

"See, this is the you that I really want to be friends with. The funny one, the nice one, the one that I don't feel angry with all the time. But then there's another you, one that snaps, one that makes fun of me, and one that seems to totally hate my guts. Why aren't you the nice guy all the time Scorp? He's such an amazing person," I whispered, as more students gathered on the lawn on the other side of Hagrid's hut. Scorpius laughed again, wholeheartedly.

"Because sometimes I don't feel like being the nice guy," he admitted, still smiling. I shrugged.

"So? I don't always want to be the nice guy either. But I don't turn into Merlin with a stick up his arse," I muttered, frowning. Scorpius really began laughing then, really cracking up, and I found myself laughing too. I laughed so much that I got a stitch in my side, and Scorpius doubled over.

"Ok, for one thing, _rude, _Rose!" Scorpius spluttered through his hysterics. "And another, this is the you that I want to be...be friends with," he stammered at the last part. I furrowed my eyebrows excessively, in a sarcastic way.

"Oh, and what's the me you don't want to be friends with?" I asked teasingly, not really caring what he said - it couldn't top my insult. _Merlin with a stick up his arse...I've got to stop listening to Dad when he's talking to his friends._

Scorp smiled down at me - he was a good few inches taller than my average height, although my curly hair made up for at least one of these inches. "I don't want to hang out with the you that blanks me, the you that gets angry with me, or the you that blames me for everything," he said, shaking his head yet smiling, most likely reliving the many memories of me whacking him. On the head. With a book. _Or something harder,_ I admitted to myself. _Occasionally._

"Fair enough," I conceded, chuckling at my flaws. "What's the me you do want to be friends with?"

Scorpius paused, and then seemed to go into deep thought. He didn't say anything. _Ouch, Scorp. Bit harsh. You don't want to be friends with me at all._

"What do you think you'll be when you're older, Scorp?" I asked, changing the subject, my cheeks burning like lava had touched them. Scorpius tilted his head towards me, his body still facing forwards. I noticed a lock of hair had drifted down his forehead and was now lying flat against the wood of Hagrid's hut.

"Something at the Ministry," he sighed, reluctantly. I raised my eyebrows.

"Impressive. What department?" I asked, honestly curious.

Scorp snorted with derision and shrugged. "_I _want to be an Auror, if I had to be anything. My _grandfather _wants to be in the Department of _Mysteries_," he said, again with the derision on _Mysteries._ The Department of Mysteries sounded incredibly dull to me - not the department itself, it's name was interesting, but the actual job. It seemed all you did all day was guard prophecies and attempt to work out the meaning of Love.

"What about you?" Scorpius asked, breaking my train of thought. I shrugged.

"No idea. I'll see what NEWTs I get," I said, trying to hide my concern about the future. Scorpius seemed to know not to go too deep into this question, which was good - I didn't want to have to think about it.

Just then, I heard Hagrid bellow something out to the class - _he sounds tipsy already_.

Glancing at Scorpius, we laughed, then I squealed and darted over to the rest of the class, Scorp right behind. Throughout the whole class, we were smiling at each other occasionally, however never exchanging more than the necessary amount of words. We had reached a point. We weren't enemies, and we had patched up our differences. However, something told me that at the end of it all, I wasn't going to be able to say that I was friends with Scorpius Malfoy.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen:**

"Jonathan, pass the Quaffle!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Hepiliya was in a good position to catch and score, yet Jonathan seemed intent upon scoring the first goal. He was flying like a bullet through the air, however I'd instructed the Beaters to imagine they were on the opposing team, and Aphelia sent a Bludger flying towards Jonathan...

The Quaffle soared out of his hands, and into the waiting arms of Hepiliya, who had flown beneath him, seizing the moment. She shot forward and scored with ease.

"Good! Everyone come down now!" I yelled, beginning my descent. The rest of my team followed me down without delay, and landed in a semi-circle in front of me.

"Good work, but seriously, guys, remember you're a _team_, not a single force. We'll be working together in the match against Ravenclaw, and when we win...well, that's when we'll _all_ get the glory we deserve," I said, grinning. Jonathan looked slightly ashamed, whilst Aaron Cooke beamed at me, as we all knew he was big on being a _team player_. "Ok, now you can all, um, go," I shrugged, not really knowing what to say now. We'd had a weekend morning practice today, after I'd decided from the five o'clock practice I'd scheduled earlier in the week that we were not up to standard. I followed the team into the changing room and finally collected the item I'd been itching to get my hands on all day - my guitar. I lifted it up off a bench and then walked casually with it to a quiet place I'd found earlier that day. Whilst I was still learning, I'd decided to not inflict the twangs upon the rest of the girls in my dormitory, so I cast _Muffliato _on a place just outside the castle where I could practice in peace.

I sat down in the archway I'd found, and the three remaining walls offered a shelter from the bright sunlight pouring through the non-existent roof. I set a rug down on the ground, leant my broom against a wall, and then finally began to strum on the guitar. _I think I'm actually getting better_.

I was perfectly happy for a few minutes, just me and the guitar. I was attempting to learn a couple of songs, however so far I could only pluck them. I needed to get the chords right. And that would most definitely take me a long time.

"You're not doing that right," came a voice. I paused to take the _Muffliato _charm off, then continued playing.

"I'm playing great for a beginner, and you know it," I muttered, concentrating on the smooth strings.

"You're playing fine, but you need to think about how you're holding it," asnwered the voice.

I looked up, ceasing to play. "What's wrong with the way I'm holding it, Scorp?" I asked, surprised.

Scorpius sat down near to me, leaning back against a wall. "You're holding it like a broom - too tight and tense. You need to relax a little with it. It's just a guitar," he chuckled, reaching over. "Can I have it?" I frowned and pouted, but still passed it to him, not quite sure what I expected him to do. He began to play.

Then I saw something amazing - a missing piece of a still incomplete puzzle. Scorpius seemed to belong to a guitar as much as I belonged to Hogwarts. The two moved in perfect sync with each other, never pausing to think about what come next, just intuitively knowing. He played an upbeat tune, that seemed to urge me to get up and do a bizarre country dance in time to the music, yet I couldn't - this is what my guitar should sound like. And - annoyingly - Scorp was right. I _had _been holding it wrong.

When he finished, he passed it back to my waiting arms. He showed me how to position it so that it was easier for me to play. This time, when I played a chord, it seemed so much more comfortable, less strained than it had been earlier.

"You're good at the guitar," I commented. Scorpius laughed.

"Not really. I just have a lot of time on my hands," he admitted. I shook my head.

"No, you're good. I mean, really good," I smiled, disbelieving. Scorpius looked up, surprised at the tenderness in my voice. "Can you sing too?" I asked. Scorpius laughed.

"I don't think so," he chuckled. I held the guitar out to him, and he took it, bewildered.

"Why don't you try?" I offered. Scorp sighed.

"I really don't think I'm any good, Rose," he muttered. I shrugged.

"So? No-one can hear," I said, casting _Muffliato _once again. Scorpius paused.

"Fine, I'll try - just don't laugh!" he consented, picking up the guitar in the proper way, the way he'd shown me to. He started strumming an introduction to a song I didn't know. Then, quietly, he began to sing softly, as if to himself.

It was strange. This boy, who ten minutes earlier I hadn't known had known anything about a guitar, seemed to melt into it. It was music. Not my music, screeching strings and protesting twangs, but real, honest to Merlin music. It was unbelievable - if I hadn't been at Hogwarts, I'd have said it was magic. _I still say it's magic._ The sound, coming from both my guitar and escaping from between Scorpius' lips, was pure magic. It was amazing - the two complimented each other perfectly. They were made for each other. Scorpius had a deep voice, that echoed in every breath of the trees surrounding whistled his words in their leaves, and he unwittingly answered them. I was spellbound.

When the song finished, I actually felt mournful for it. "Scorp, that was incredible," I whispered, transfixed on the hand that still lingered on my guitar. He blushed slightly, then passed it back to me. "Does anyone else know about this?" I asked, so quietly I was afraid he wouldn't hear me.

"Who would I tell? My _father_?" Scorpius asked rhetorically. "He didn't even want me to have a guitar in the first place. My mother? No, she thinks I need to be an 'honourable wizard, with a respectable job for the Ministry'. How can I tell them that this," he stroked the guitar, "is what I want to be doing?"

"Well, you can't live in your parents shadow for the rest of your life. You're of age, you don't technically need to live with them anymore, or do what they tell you to," I remarked, saying the only thing I could think of. "Do you practice a lot?"

Scorpius nodded. "I play usually once a day, wherever's free. I didn't know about that spell, _Muffliato_ before, though. That could be useful in the future. If there is a future in this," he muttered, strumming a chord, note perfect. I paused.

"Do you want to be a musician, Scorp?" I queried, softly. Scorpius looked at me, then nodded discreetly. "Well, then, you shouldn't let your parents stop you. They don't own you. I'm sure they're perfectly nice people," I was interrupted by a snort of derision from Scorpius. "What I mean is, they may think they have your best interests at heart, but they can never completely understand what's going through your mind," I reflected over what I just said, then laughed quietly. "That sounded really cheesy, didn't it?"

Scorpius chuckled. "If you hadn't been trying to help me, I would have been laughing through every word," he admitted. I had an idea.

"Why don't you teach me?" I blurted out. Scorpius raised is head.

"What?" he asked, incredulously.

"You could teach me to play the guitar! You're first professional job!" I exclaimed, my excitement growing with every word.

Scorpius looked torn between two emotions I couldn't identify. Then I remembered. "Oh, right. We're not friends, are we?" I muttered, looking down, feeling foolish. I heard Scorpius sigh.

"No, I'll teach you," he said, calmly.

"Really?" I cried, my head whipping up, my long hair smacking him the face. Scorpius smirked.

"Really," he said.

"Thank you so much! I'll pay you and everything, I promise!" I squealed, bouncing up and down slightly.

Scorpius chuckled. "I don't want your money," he said, shaking his head. I shook my head in return.

"No way, this is you first professional job, you need to be paid. Are...Thursday evenings ok for you?" I asked, thinking about my timetable. Scorpius paused, then nodded. Suddenly, he smacked his head.

"Merlin! I need to get to Al now!" he cried.

"Oh good!" I breathed, "You're friends again."

Scorpius leapt up, shaking his head. "No, it's for the plan. I need to be doing something with Al right now," he explained.

"Should I come too, then?" I asked, standing up too. Scorpius paused.

"If you want," he conceded. I shrugged.

"Ok. Lead the way, Malfoy," I said, laughing. Scorp shook his head.

"No, you're on the _other _side, remember? We're meeting in the Entrance Hall, so maybe you head up there first so it doesn't seem too odd to the, er, spectators," he said. I had to agree with this - it would look kind of suspicious if two people on opposing sides turned up together. I nodded, and turned to walk away.

"See you there, Weasley," Scorpius called. I didn't turn back, just lifted a hand and waved. I got the impression that he was still watching me as I walked away. I didn't know how to feel about that.

I hurried up to the Entrance Hall, where I could see Albus lurking in a corner. I attempted and failed to casually stride over to him - from what I could gather from the bizarre glances I was shot, I could only assume I resembled a cross between a lolloping panda and Hagrid.

"Al, Scorpius is on his way," I hissed, making sure no one could hear us. Albus nodded.

"Good. I've been waiting for him for ages," he muttered. I grimaced in empathy.

"He's busy, Al. We've all got NEWTs to prepare for," I suggested as a reason for Scorpius' late arrival, even though I knew full well the reason for his tardiness.

Albus then said something that I slapped him on the head for. _Why is everyone so rude?_

"Why did you and Scorp fight, Albus?" I blurted out. Al froze, staring at me, as if petrified. _Is he possessed?_

"Maybe I'll tell you one day, Rose," he uttered, finally. Neither of us spoke for a few minutes - there was a distance between us that neither one of us had ever felt before, and I got a feeling it was because I'd asked a question I didn't necessarily want to know the answer to.

"Well, what are you two staging here, anyway?" I asked, changing the subject. Al smirked.

"There he is," was all he said, as Scorpius walked through the large, ornate doors of the Entrance Hall.

"Al, what are you two doing?" I hissed, suddenly frightened. Al turned, winked at me, then strode up to Scorpius.

"Hey, Malfoy!" he called out - it had begun. Scorp turned to look at my cousin, seemingly with surprise.

"Hey," he replied, oddly formal. _What are they doing here?_

"Lily told me what she thinks you're doing," he hissed. By now, a crowd of students had gathered around them in a circle; there was no mistaking the malice in Al's voice, and they wanted to see what was happening. I pushed my way to the front of them.

"What does Lily think I'm doing?" Scorpius asked, again with the strange formality. _Why is he acting so unlike himself...ah. Imperiused._ _Right._

"_You _know what I'm talking about!" Al hissed, "And I _won't _let you do it! Not after what my family did!" he yelled. Scorpius laughed robotically.

"Even if I were _up to something_, which I'm not, just think about what _my _family did! The honour I'd get if I was...doing what you think I'm doing!" Scorp cried, with a hint of evil leaching into his tone. I felt a tap on my shoulder. Looking round briefly, I saw Sam was by my side.

"What's going on with Al and Scorpius Malfoy?" he whispered into my ear. I shook my head, honestly with no clue as to what was happening.

"But you _can't, _Scorpius! Do you have any idea what would happen if you did that? How many people would _die_?" Albus bellowed. Scorpius spoke as if he hadn't him.

"Think about the glory. Think about the power. Think about the honour that would go to _my family_!" Scorpius cried.

It happened simultaneously. Both boys, like lightening, reached into their pockets and pulled out their wands. Suddenly I knew what they had planned. _But this is wrong, this is so wrong. They hate each other, they might try to actually hurt each other..._

"No..." I breathed, my voice caught in my throat. It was too late. A jet of red flew out of Al's wand, but Scorpius dodged it, sending another hex towards Al. Albus dodged that too. They bellowed curses - not all magical ones, too - and attempted to hex each other, however each time the spell seemed to just skid past it's target. Then Al went bright red in the face.

"We were friends, Scorp!" he yelled, firing another curse at Scorpius.

"_Were!_" Scorpius hissed, sending tongues of purple flames soaring towards Al's head.

"Why did it have to be _her_?" Albus hissed, so quietly that most of the people surrounding us didn't hear. I heard, although I was almost positive I'd heard wrong. _Who's _her_? What's he talking about?_ This remark caught Scorpius off guard. His wand was still raised, but his eyes were murky with bewilderment. He shot another curse at Albus.

"Don't try and stop me, Potter! I'll do whatever I have to do!" he yelled, so loudly that Professor MacPhersonis could probably hear him from all the way up in her office.

"You're _not _bringing him back! Not on my watch!" Al screamed. There was something new in his eyes - real motivation. I knew what would happen before it did.

"No!" I whispered, unable to make my voice audible. The rest of the room suddenly seemed muted, blurred, as if the only things in existence were the two boys in the centre of the circle. It wasn't in slow motion, like people always say it is. It happened at regular speed, however I was just extremely aware of everything that was happening. Albus raised his wand. His lips formed the shape of a curse. For a moment, I thought I saw Scorpius' eyes flicker to me, to where I was standing, and that he looked in to my eyes for an instant, but I must have imagined it. Because who could take their eyes off the spell that was hurtling towards the centre of Scorpius' chest? The indigo streak hit him right below his neck, and he was sent hurtling backwards into the cold, hard, stone wall. I couldn't hear the sound it made, his body against the wall, however I saw the force of the impact. The contact of his body against the wall made his limbs rock and go limp. Scorpius flopped down to the stone floor, unconscious.

"No!" I screamed, and this time, although I don't think I could hear my own voice, I knew I'd screamed the word. I ran forward to where Al was standing, frozen in the disbelief of what he'd done.

"That's enough, Al!" I screamed, grabbing his arm and snatching his wand away from him. My hearing returned - everyone in the room was gasping, shrieking or cursing. As soon as I had confiscated Al's wand, I sprinted over to where Scorpius lay, unconscious.

"Scorp? Scorpius, can you hear me?" I asked him. There was no response. I didn't dare touch him for fear of internal injuries. I leant my head over his body to check for breathing. I could feel the faint fluttering of his breath against my cheek. Only when my head was that close to the stone upon which Scorpius' head lay, that was when I noticed the small pool of blood that was slowly dripping it's way through his hair. I heard someone call for Madame Pomfrey.

"No! Don't get Madame Pomfrey! Al will get in trouble!" Lily screamed, from a seemingly far off land. I think Al was frozen on the spot, transfixed on where Scorpius lay. I didn't think I should do recovery position for a head injury, it wouldn't do any good. _I think_. Instead, I whipped off my tie from around my neck and pressed it gently to where the cut was. Nobody had gone for Madame Pomfrey, so he would be my responsibility. I checked once more for his breathing - it was ragged, and I was afraid something may be blocking his throat.

"_Anapneo,_" I whispered, and instantly his breathing was smoother. I racked my brain trying to think of anything I could do for him. I remembered a useful spell, that might work.

"_Episkey_," I muttered, pointing my wand at Scorpius' cut that I had my tie pressed against. The bleeding lessened, if not stopped, which was a good sign. Then, a dim memory of a spell floated its way up from the deep recesses' of my mind. _It's worth a shot._

"_Rennervate,_" I breathed, hardly daring to breath. _Please, please, please..._

Slowly, Scorpius opened his eyes. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Can you hear me, Scorp?" I asked, gently. It occurred to me that everyone in the room was watching me and Scorpius, mesmerised.

"If I couldn't, would I be replying to you now?" he murmured, his expression confused and foggy. I felt like singing with joy. I repressed it, because making sure Scorp was alright was more important.

"Ok, I'm going to ask you to sit up now. Just lean against the wall. Are you alright with than?" I said, gently. Scorp nodded once, then slowly, with my assistance, propped himself up against the wall. I kept my tie pressed against his wound, even though I was fairly certain that the injury had closed thanks to my spell. _Still, you can never be too careful_.

When he was leaning against the wall, I allowed myself to think that he was alright. It started off as one person - one little girl started clapping, uncertainly. Then another, then another, and soon the entire room was applauding me. The sound grew, and grew, and I saw even Lily had joined in. Al was still rooted to the spot, unable to comprehend what he'd done. I'd comfort him later. Sam was clapping, uncertainly, however there was another emotion in his eyes that I couldn't identify or understand. _I'll try to talk to him later_.

Slowly, over the period of several minutes, I managed to get Scorpius on his feet. By this time, the throng of pupils had dissipated, and only a few remained chatting to their friends. I pulled Scorpius' arm across my shoulder to support him as I guided him over to where Lily, Al and Hugo stood. Al, who appeared as if he'd been stunned, looked up at the sound of our footsteps - my footsteps, Scorpius' shuffles - and seemed to wake up from a daze of horror for the first time.

"Scorp, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that!" he cried. Scorpius shook his head, wearily.

"It's fine, Al. Really," he muttered. I turned to Lily. _She looks happy!_ Lily was wearing a huge grin on her face, a smirk and a real smile at the same time.

"That. Was. Brilliant!" she squealed, jumping slightly. "It's all anyone will be able to talk about, so everyone will know what's happening! Brilliant!" she breathed again.

"And it will make Scorp seem like a victim, so it will be easier to rehabilitate his image afterwards," Hugo chimed in. Lily nodded, then stopped.

"Oh, and well done, Rose," she tacked on as an afterthought. Albus leaned over to lift Scorp's arm off of my shoulders and onto his. Instantly, my shoulders felt much lighter - _I hadn't realised how heavy his arm was._

"I'll get you down to your common room," Al offered to Scorp, who was too weak to object. Whilst they walked down to Slytherin common room, I walked with Hugo and Lily up to our common room. We got swept away on a moving staircase at one point, however it was only a minor detour. We arrived outside the Fat Lady a few minutes later.

"_Lord Aphestentine,_" I muttered. The Fat Lady graciously swung open for us. The moment I was inside, I was swamped by people asking if it was true, had Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy dueled, had I really saved Scorpius Malfoy's life? I shot a look at Lily, and instantly she began to retell the story, far more enthusiastically than I'd have been able to, whilst I escaped up to my dormitory, where, hopefully, I could tell Leanne and Mara in peace.

Later that night, I lay in bed thinking. _I wonder if I did save Scorpius' life. That would be amazing. For there to be a person, alive today, because of me._

Just before I drifted into the realm of unconsicousness, I remembered what Lily had said to me,just before Al had walked Scorpius off to his common room. _"Oh, and well done, Rose." _

_Yes. I should say, very well done, Rose._


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen:**

Finally, my world was at peace. Sam and I had never been happier together. Lily was ecstatic that her plan was in full flow. Scorpius was once again my friend, and my new guitar tutor. Albus and Scorpius were friends again too - although all in secret, as this might jeopardize the plan. Mara, Leanne, Willa, Sheila, Harriet and I were planning on having a sleepover in the dormitory Harriet shared with four other girls, who had all agreed to go into our empty beds that night. Hugo and I had been avoiding each other so as not to ignite the spark of an argument, so all in all I was truly happy.

The only slight dampener on my happiness was the looming NEWTs. What with all the extra work being issued to us, I hadn't had time to do any of the things I'd been planning to do. Lily had told us to not have another public display of our plan for a while, as this had been 'adequate' and we 'needed to let the school think there was something simmering below the surface.' I was very relieved about this - I didn't want to have to revive Scorpius for a second time! And I was so overloaded with homework and course work that there simply wasn't time! Lily and Hugo had it badly too, as their OWLs were approaching. Luckily for us, Hugo and I had _inherited our mother's brains - _as Dad told us every single time either one of us got an 'O' in any practice exams - so we both found the work easy, just tiresome and in some cases overwhelming. I still routinely turned up for my guitar lessons, however. I paid Scorpius one galleon for every lesson. I had originally wanted to pay him more, however when I'd attempted to, he'd just slipped it back into my school-bag when I wasn't looking. I knew that after the plan was over we wouldn't be friends anymore, and I'd accepted that eventuality. We'd always be on good terms, and that was all that would be necessary, in the end. My guitar playing was definitely improving, however. I could hear the essence of music as a vague undertone to my twangs now, and apparently that was a good sign. Sam and I hadn't been able to go on a proper date for a while now, however I always met up with him after classes. We had an upcoming Quidditch Match against the Ravenclaws later today though, and I was particularly on edge about this one - I had snuck into one of their practices, and Holly, their Seeker, was incredible! I couldn't help comparing her to Albus. My cousin was good, but good enough to beat her?

My palms were sweaty, and my broomstick kept slipping and sliding everywhere when I was practicing earlier in the morning. I was nervous about this one. I deliberately took my time going down to the pitch, so as to appear cool and composed before the rest of my team. I slowly inhaled the air - Spring was coming, you could tell by the subtle scents in the breeze. The snow was all long since gone, however no denying it was still cold. Still, knowing that Spring was on its way was comforting. The flowers had not yet emerged, but I knew they were there. Somewhere.

My team were already kitted up and ready to play. I could see that Albus was feeling incredibly tense - instead of interacting with his friend, Jonathan, he was loitering in an alcove of the changing room, smoothing the robes on his arms. I shot him a grimace of sympathy. I could tell how he must be feeling, after seeing how Holly could play. I quickly moved over to him.

"Al, don't worry. You'll be great," I assured him, patting his shoulder somewhat awkwardly. Albus, who hadn't appeared to hear me talking, looked up suddenly at my patting his shoulder.

"Rose, there's something..." he began, but then stopped himself.

"Yeah?" I prompted him, taking my hand off his shoulder. Albus hesitated - there seemed to be an argument going on in his head, as his face kept twitching in strange ways.

"You should probably tie your hair up," he muttered finally, before hurriedly dashing off to the over side of the changing. I sighed, as I knew him well enough to be certain that I wouldn't find out what it was that he was really going to tell me for a very long time. _Shame, as it's probably something I need to know sooner rather than later. _I pulled on my kit just as the rumbles from the expectant crowds outside peaked. The match was starting soon.

Almost simultaneously, the entire team reached up and grabbed their brooms. I coughed, then said a quiet good luck to the team, then we all walked onto the pitch in silence. We couldn't help it - I knew that everyone else thought we were going to lose. In the back of my mind, I had accepted that, too - but I wouldn't let on to my team. No, I was the only one who absolutely _had _to show only one hundred per cent faith in my team.

The light glared at us from the moment we stepped onto the pitch. Bad conditions. We'd have to fly away from the sun. I saw the Ravenclaw team on the other side of the pitch, looking jubilant - they knew this would be an easy win, with Holly James as their Seeker. Somewhere in my mind, I dimly registered the call for us to mount our brooms, and then we were flying higher, higher, higher...

_Pull yourself together, for Merlin's sake!_ I yelled at myself. It was hard, though. I saw the Quaffle being thrown high into the air...and without thinking, I darted forward and scooped it up with ease. Within seconds I seemed to be at the other end of the pitch, the Quaffle gracing the sides of the centre hoop. I didn't even hear the cheers. Suddenly I realised. _We don't have to catch the Snitch to win the game. We just need to score. A lot._

I paid no heed to the commentators, the crowd, or the opposing team even, unless absolutely necessary. Sam seemed to have realised what we needed to do as well, and was stopping every ball from going into our goals. We scored over, and over again, never stopping - we were unbeatable. Whenever Ravenclaw got possesion of the Quaffle, Jonathan would intercept, pass the Aphelia, who would throw long to me, and then I'd score with ease, as all of the Ravenclaw chasers would still be surrounding Jonathan. I could see Holly going bright pink in the face with anger - she was unused to being thrashed so completely. But everyone knew that all she would have to do was catch the Snitch, and unless we were above one hundred and fifty points by that time, Ravenclaw would still win.

When we hit one hundred points to zero, I dared to let myself dream that we might even win. The Snitch shouldn't appear for a very long time yet, so we had plenty of time to get the sixty or more points we needed to beat Ravenclaw. I saw the Quaffle shooting towards me, and without thinking I caught and scored yet again. The system we have devised for this match worked surprising well, although it should only be used in times of need - _like when our Seeker is too nervous to play up to his full potential_. We scored again, and again, and again, until we finally reached one hundred and fifty. _Come on, _I willed my team. _Just once more._

Suddenly, I saw Holly shooting across the field, Albus hot on her heels. This was it. Holly's long blonde hair was streaming behind her, almost tickling her ankles as she flew, and it was consistantly blowing back and hitting Al in the face. I saw her outstretch her hand...and then the Quaffle came flying at me again, and Genevieve Sequay, the Ravenclaw Keeper, was so transfixed by Holly that she didn't notice the Quaffle flying towards her until it soared through the post. This time, I listened to the cheers, and realised that Holly, not knowing that I'd just scored for Gryffindor bringing our score up to one hundred and sixty, had caught the Snitch, was unaware to the fact that by doing so was ensuring her teams loss. Apehlia and Jonathan flew at me and almost knocked my off my broom as they squeezed the life out of me, and the rest of our team were clapping like maniacs. Holly had just realised what she'd done, and began swearing loudly, so that Madame Lawson blew her whistle loudly at her. I shook hands with Katrinta, the Ravenclaw Captain, to attempt to keep the peace, however she shot me a dirty look, and squeezed my hand far too tightly for it to be friendly. _I never liked her anyway. _

I listened to the choruses of, 'Congratulations!", and, 'Only Slytherin left now!', before retreating as quickly as I could out onto the grass, where hoards of students were still walking back up to the castle. I saw a tuft of white-blonde hair.

"Scorpius!" I cried. He turned, shocked. _Oh right. The plan._ I winced in annoyance, and realised lots of students were staring at us, bewildered, as they believed we were in the middle of a fight. I realised I could still salvage the situation. I strolled determinedly up to him, pretending the be angry.

"Sorry!" I breathed, pausing momentarily. Then I slapped him hard on the face.

"Don't you _dare_ do what you're planning, Scorpius. _Don't you dare,_" I hissed, as Scorp's cheek began to redden. Then I stalked off. Then I remembered why I had actually called Scorp's name in the first place, and turned around and subtly signaled to him to follow me. I could hear his footsteps behind me, but couldn't risk turning round again. When we were sufficiently far enough away from the rest of the pupils. I turned back.

"Sorry, Scorp, I completely forgot..." I began, but was caught off guard by how close he was to me. Really, his face was inches from mine, his expression as surprised as I felt - I couldn't help but inhale his scent. A shiver of pleasure ran through my body, yet as it did so, Sam's face suddenly appeared in my head.

I turned my head away, creating a wall between us with my fiery hair, and I heard Scorpius cough and step back.

"Sorry, I didn't realised you were turning around then," he muttered. Judging by his voice, I deemed him far enough away to face again.

"It's fine. I was just wondering if you were free for a guitar lesson now," I said, regaining myself. Scorp raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I suppose. Don't you want to go the Gryffindor party, though? Celebrating your win?" he asked. I grimaced.

"Not really. I've been to so many, and...well, it's only midday! I don't want to get drunk already!" I sighed. Scorpius laughed. _I think he thought I was joking._

"Well then, sure, just meet me at our usual spot while I collect the guitars," he chuckled, turning away - I thought I saw something else in his eyes, just a glimmer of something. It looked strange, yet I remembered I'd seen it before. The first day, at Kings Cross Station, when I'd caught him looking at me but then he just changed his expression immediately when he saw me looking at him. It was something I couldn't quite put my finger on.

Something I could put my finger on though, was my guitar. I was really getting the hang of it, according to Scorpius.

"Why don't we try a duet?" he suggested, when he finally approved wholeheartedly of one of my songs. I nodded eagerly - Scorp's voice was amazing, rich and deep and soulful, and I would do pretty much anything to listen it again. He slung his guitar strap over his shoulder.

"I do the lower part," he muttered, getting his fingers into the right place. I smiled, nodding. Then we started to play. I was singing quietly at first, then increased the volume of my own voice to match Scorpius'. I knew I would never be as good, as natural as he was, but I could at least try.

"_So why do you hide the way you look, at me, baby anyone can see, it's meant to be._" We sang the Sewitt Hapithew song, _Before it's too late_, grinning. Scorp was good enough that he didn't have to constantly watch his fingering, unlike me. "_So tell me, so tell me, so tell me now...before it's too late,_" We trailed off, and I made the mistake of looking up at Scorpius. He wasn't leaning towards me or anything, but I was suddenly aware of how close we were to each other. It sent an electric currant racing through my body, as if I'd been hit by lightening. His hair was glistening in the afternoon sunlight, and I noticed how snugly his t-shirt fitted him - really tight around all his strong muscles. I noticed how close his hand was to mine.

_Sam._

The moment was gone. I shifted my entire body away from him, blushing to match my hair. Scorpius coughed as well. Suddenly Scorp was just my guitar tutor again.

"I think I'm getting better," I chuckled, awkwardly, not knowing what else to do. Scorp nodded in the corner of my eye. We sat in silence for a few moments.

"Do you know when Lily's plan is going to be done?" he asked, suddenly. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"I don't think even Lily knows that. Probably not until the end of the year," I muttered. I heard Scorpius sigh.

"I kind of wish it was all over,"he murmured, leaning back against the crumbling walls. I nodded in sympathy. He definitely was getting the worst of it. "And for the record, Rose," he interrupted my train of thought. I looked at him, glad to see that he too had moved away.

"Yes?" I asked, nervous. He smirked.

"Give me a heads up before you slap me again," he laughed, rubbing his cheek where I'd slapped him earlier. It had gone bright red.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty:**

Come June I was scared about a lot of things. I was scared about our upcoming Quidditch match against Slytherin. I was scared about Hagrid's deteriorating health. I was scared about Hugo.

He was going, what Mum would call 'off the rails'. The last time I'd seen him, he'd been so drunk I'd actually had to take him to bed and stay there until he got to sleep, putting up with some hurtful remarks about me, Lily, Merlin and Professor MacPhersonis. Even his gang seemed to be edging away from him slightly - not that they'd ever admit it to him, but I was pretty sure that Kurt was now leading the gang more than Hugo. In the Muggle world, at this time I would do what's called 'stage an intervention'. But this wasn't the Muggle world. And I had no idea whatsoever about what to do.

I started by hiding all his drink in the Room of Requirement, covering it well so that when prom rolled around no-one would find the single-malt whisky I'd been forced to dot around the room. Then, on the next scheduled trip to Hogsmeade, I paid a visit to both the Hogs Head and the Three Broomsticks forbidding them to sell Hugo anything stronger than pumpkin juice. And also not to his friends - just in case. After that, there was nothing left I really could do but talk to Hugo. This was the one thing I'd been postponing for ages. Being related to my brother was hard enough - having to have a conversation with him was so much worse. I'd do it on Friday. Saturday. Sunday. Sometime.

Arrangements for the prom were going smoothly. I'd alerted the seventh year to the fact that it was happening, and instructions on how to get into the Room of Requirement. I'd decided, since I hadn't worn it since it had been bought, that I'd wear the cream lace dress I'd bought in Oxford Street. Trouble was, I'd bought a pair of shoes to match - and one had been run over by a big black car. _If someone sent me that shoe at Christmas, I must have been saved by someone who goes here. But who?_ This was a niggling thought in the back of my mind, that was slowly chewing it's way to the front. I couldn't postpone that thought forever, but I had bigger things to trouble myself with. Namely, Hugo.

I put off my chat with him as long as possible, but when Sunday afternoon came, I knew I couldn't wait any longer. I saw Hugo bumbling his way down to Hagrid's. _I should have told Hagrid not to supply him with alcohol either. _

By the time I caught up with him, the trees that had blurred behind me as I ran still imprinted in my vision, I was panting like a dog.

"Hugo, can I...talk...to you?" I choked, doubling over. Hugo turned around, the smiled wildly.

"Rose! My favourite sister!" he yelled squeezing me tightly in his thin arms. I could smell the stench of alcohol on his breath, and prised him off me.

"Hugo, I'm worried about you," I whispered. Hugo laughed throatily.

"Rosie, why're you worried 'bout _me?_" Here he poked me hard in the chest. _Ouch, Hugo. Really. Ouch._ "I'm _fine. _I've never. Been. Better," he said, solemnly, patting my shoulder with every word. Then he burst out laughing. "I mean, do _I_ look upset 'bout anything to _you?_" he drawled, teetering on one foot.

Then I realised. He was upset about something. That's why he'd been acting out. Why he'd _turned to the bottle_.

"Yes, Hugo," I whispered, laying a hand on his shoulder and sitting him down on the ground. "You do look upset about something. It's like Hagrid - he's upset about Olympe, and his drinking's never been worse! I know you, Hugo - I know when you upset. And you're upset now. So _please _tell me why?" I pleaded with him, gently. Hugo blinked. Once. Twice. Three times.

"I can't stop thinking about her," he whispered, finally. I felt like throwing up. _My brother is in love? In love? Eew!_

I tried to handle this news as delicately as I could. "Um, _who_ can't you stop thinking about?" I stammered, not really sure I wanted to know the answer.

Hugo looked over his shoulder, his hair tickling his armpits - really, it was nearly as long as mine!

"Katy Bluehalph," he whispered, once sure that no-one else was listening. My eyebrows went so high they probably touched the sun and caught fire - which might explain why they were so red. _Katy? Katy Bluehalph?_

"What do you like about her?" I asked, quietly. Hugo laughed, his breath leaching onto my freshly washed face.

"What not to like? Her hair...it's really dark and shiny...and her eyes are like mist, or smoke...and her fingernails are really nice, too..." he muttered, staring off into space. The first two remarks I could understand. Katy's hair _was _dark and shiny, and her eyes _were _a light grey - although the size of her nose more than compensated for her few attractive features. But _fingernails_? _There's a freaky thing I didn't know about my little brother_.

"Why don't you just talk to her, then?" I asked, trying to picture Hugo with Katy. I instantly saw the problem, even before Hugo voiced it.

"She's going out with George Allan. They've been going out for a year, nothing I do will break them up. _Nothing!_" Hugo bellowed, suddenly. I leaned back from him.

"Well, then, maybe she's bored and wants something different..." I murmured, although as soon as the words were out of my mouth I knew that, even if they did by some miracle happen to be true, Katy would never go for Hugo if George Allan was anything to go by. George was a Metamorphis, but his most favourite look was with dark purple hair, topaz coloured eyes and a nose the size of a pea. I didn't know why he liked that face so much, actually. It wasn't very attractive.

"We'll never get together..." Hugo bellowed, burying his head in his knees. I frowned. "What can I do about Katy-fricking-Bluehalph?" he murmured.

I pursed my lips. "Maybe you could stop drinking, and go and talk to her sober. I know I'd be pretty put out if a guy came up to me drunk and ordered me to be his girlfriend," I muttered, shrugging. _I could kill two birds with one stone with this idea._

Hugo looked up. "But I like the way Firewhiskey tastes," he whimpered, suddenly sounding like a three-year-old. I sighed.

"Well, from now on I'm making sure you don't have any. I'm not letting Hagrid give you his stock anymore," I explained as gently as I could. Hugo snorted with derision, and then told me to do something obscene to myself. I took this as code for me to leave. Overall, I was quite pleased with how our conversation had gone - Hugo had become aware of his problem, and I now knew why.

The walk back up to the common room was dreary. I didn't see any of my friends, it started to rain heavily just as I passed by Hagrid's, and as soon as I stepped through the portrait hole I remembered the pile of homework I'd been assigned. It wouldn't take me too long, but it was still a pain. There was a crackling fire that cast a warm glow around the room, and illuminated all the face near to it eerily. Half light, half dark.

As I was writing my last piece of homework - an essay for Potions - Lily stormed into the common room, closely followed by Albus. I had never seen them both look so angry.

"We can't let him get away with it, Lily," Albus yelled. They had the full attention of the common room. _Something tells me this is about the plan_.

"We're not even sure he's doing something," Lily shouted back at him, whipping round so that her long hair flicked a startled first-year in the face - who looked very pleased with himself, being so close to the famous _Lily Potter_.

"We are sure, and you know it, Lily. We know what he's doing, but we just don't know when. We can't let him do it!" Albus yelled, "I've been pretending to be his friend again so that I can try to find out for definite when he's going to do it, but he won't tell me! Merlin, I even offered to help him so that I could get more information!" Al yelled at Lily. I've never seen someone flick a strand of hair over their shoulder with so much sass.

"Well, obviously, you don't know anything for certain. I mean, you've basically admitted it. Rose, back me up here," she shrieked, turning to look at me. _Oh_. I saw Albus shooting me a look that told me I had to agree with him, not Lily. _Improvise. _

I stood up and walked over to them calmly, and moved to stand beside Al. "Actually, Lily, I think I agree with Al. He's been acting really weird lately - I mean, I know because we share basically _all _our classes. And, well, in Potions the other day," I lowered my voice, then shot a look over my shoulder to stare at everyone in the common-room - all eyes on us. I turned back to face Lily. "Look, I really didn't want to tell you two about it this publicly, but I saw him looking up some pretty creepy potions...it seemed like really dark stuff, Lily," I said, quietly, shooting looks at Albus every now and again to check everything I was saying made sense. Al nodded discreetly at me.

Lily moaned. "But...look, isn't this all a total cliche? I mean, our parents practically saved the world, and his helped destroy it. It just seems too convenient," she sighed. I looked at Albus, who looked back at me. _Keep going,_ was what he wanted to say to me.

"But it's not really, if you think about it. He would learn from his parents, we learn from ours. It makes sense, Lily. You - we - just don't want to see it," I whispered. Even though my voice was barely a vibration, I could tell that every single Gryffindor was listening fervently to it. Lily paused, before throwing her hands up in the air and storming off to her dormitory. I quickly slid all of my books into my bag, before turning back to Al.

"I think we should probably go outside for a moment, Albus," I hissed. This time I wasn't acting. _If they put me on the spot like that again, I will torture them. _

I heard the gasps and the whispers rising from the crowds of students. They were gossiping about what they'd just seen barely a moment after I'd turned my back. Underneath all the hisses, I could hear footsteps that were following me. Good. Albus was coming.

As soon as we were out of earshot, I flew at him.

"Why didn't you warn me you were doing that today?" I hissed, furious with him and Lily. Albus sighed.

"We weren't planning it, honest, but...I know is a really lame excuse, but we were bored, so we decided to do that, and...well, it was Lily who dragged you into it. Sorry," he muttered, keeping his voice low as a group of fourth-year boys dragged themselves through the Fat Lady.

I sighed. "Al, please make sure Lily doesn't do that again. Say something like, I don't know, 'Lily, leave Rose out of this.' Would that have been so hard to say?" I moaned. I knew I sounded like a whiny little girl, but right now I was annoyed with my cousins.

Al nodded. "Next time, we'll ask your permission before we pull a stunt like that." I nodded to, running a hand absent mindedly through my hair, combing it.

"You'd better," I muttered, then turned to walk back inside. I was meaning to leave the argument in a smooth and sophisticated manner, so as to look as if I was in control of the situation. Instead, my foot came into harsh contact with the portrait hole. I went flying forward, my robes billowing around me as I flew almost horizontally down to the ground. I landed with a smack, banging my jaw in the process. _Ouch._

I spat my hair out of my mouth. I could hear everyone laughing. _Nothing for it,_ I decided, ignoring the tears of pain blossoming in my eyes. _I have to laugh to so as to not look like an idiot._

I laughed, stood up, smoothed my robes over, then huffily stalked back inside. I made a point of not listening to Albus' particularly loud chortles at my disgrace. Instead, at the last minute I whipped around to face him.

"You'd better," I repeated, then stormed off to my dormitory, furious with myself.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One:**

"Truth or dare, Leanne," Harriet whispered, her face illuminated by the torchlight. On the floor beneath us, scattered everywhere, as far as the eye could see, were our NEWT books. It was the night of our big sleepover, however we had underestimated how badly we needed to revise for our upcoming exams. Instead of the fun-fest we'd envisioned, we were having a revision session._ Truth or Dare_ was a way of getting an hour long break. Harriet came up with the cruelest dares, so when Leanne heard her name spoken, she moaned loudly, only to receive several 'shushes' in response - it was well gone midnight, and the teachers would not be happy if they heard us talking after hours. Then again, we did almost every night.

Leanne blushed, trying to cover her face with her long golden hair. "Truth," she whispered, picking the easy option. Harriet pulled a face, evidently irked that the dare she had obviously planned was not going to be put into immediate action. Still, a truth was launched into the air barely a moment after Leanne had spoken.

"Do you still love Liam?" she blurted out grinning wildly. Leanne froze. Harriet had gone too deep.

Liam Jackson was a Slytherin, but no-one cared about that. What everyone cared about was the fact that in the Muggle world, he'd been 'scouted' as a model. There were constant pictures of him working in Calvin Klein, wearing - embarrassingly enough - underpants. Leanne and him had dated before he'd become a model, and had broken up when she'd discovered that he'd been cheating on her with - no surprises - Holly, the Ravenclaw Seeker. Leanne had gotten through three tubs of _Ben & Jerry's_ that day alone, not to mention multiple packs of tissues. She hadn't dated anyone since, even though it had been two years ago. Personally, I'd been wondering the same question, but you just couldn't ask outright like that! It was plain rude!

Leanne was ice-white, and even Harriet could sense she'd gone too far. Nobody spoke for a moment.

"Mara, I've got a _Truth or Dare _for you!" Willa said, interrupting the silence suddenly. We all shot her grateful glances, but she brushed them aside. Mara rushed a nod, eager to draw the attention away from her sister.

"I'll do a Dare," she said, loudly, drawing the attention away from Leanne. In the umber, flickering candlelight - at sleepovers we preferred candles to _lumos _as they set a more mysterious mood - Mara and Leanne had never looked more different. It suddenly struck me how much had changed this year. Mara had really grown up - Leanne could still easily be a fifth year. Not in the way they looked, for if anything Leanne looked older than Mara, but in the way they acted. Mara was suddenly more mature than her sister, who hadn't changed at all the whole year long. Leanne was the same. Something about Mara was different, but for the first time in seven years I had no idea what.

"Ok, I Dare you to..." And here I don't really want to repeat what Willa said. I'll say that it was hilarious watching Mara blush and carry out her Dare, but if we'd been caught...well, that would have been six expulsions from Hogwarts in one night. Then it was my turn.

"Dare. No, Truth! Dare!" I squealed.

"Which one?" Harriet giggled, brushing a lock of dark hair off her face, still breathless from running away from Mrs Norris on the way back from Mara's Dare..

_Truth's are easy. But then it can get so personal! Imagine if someone asked me about Sam! Or imagine if they asked me about the plan! Wait, they don't know about that. Anyway, you can always lie. No one can tell. And Dares are much harder...what if they told me to go into the common room naked? I mean, no one's there now, but still...they _have_ done that before..._

"Truth," I finally said, after quietly deliberating. Sheila quickly leaned over to Harriet and whispered something to her.

"Boring! That's just a little question! It can't count as Rose's Truth!" Harriet hissed, smirking.

I shrugged. "Go ahead. Do your worst," I said, smirking.

Harriet looked at everyone in the room, who all nodded eagerly at her. I realised they'd all had a truth prepared for me for a very long time.

"Do you know that Scorpius is totally in love with you?" she whispered, her eyes shining with glee.

Dumbstruck. That's how I'd describe how I felt that moment. For a fraction of a second, I was frozen. Then I regained myself and shook my head.

"No," I said simply. They looked at me, confused. "I said no. You wanted the truth, so no, I don't know that because it's _so _not true!" I said, frowning.

"I know we tried to put you off him a while ago..." Leanne began.

"But we've been talking it over, and we think you two should go out," Mara finished.

I shrugged. "It doesn't matter what you guys think should happen. I'm dating Sam. Scorpius is...I don't know. I'm not interested in him. Like I said, I'm dating Sam."

Everyone exchanged glances. "It's not that we don't like Sam," Harriet started.

"Because we do!" Willa interjected.

"It's just that we don't think you like him as much as you say you do," Harriet continued, as if Willa hadn't interrupted.

I let out a huff. For a minute I was speechless. I lowered my gaze to the floor, too angry to look at them.

"Look, the whole world isn't necessarily what you guys think it is, ok? I am dating Sam. I _do _like Sam. He's honest, and sweet, and nice...and no matter what you guys think, Scorp and I are...I don't even know if we're friends. I don't think we can be. And he does not like me!" I whispered, not taking my gaze from the blue, tattered rug I'd brought with me from home when I first came to Hogwarts.

There was silence for a moment. Then Leanne spoke.

"I'm going to be honest. I don't like Malfoy. I think he's obnoxious, a bit stuck-up and, well, a Slytherin. I like Sam. You're right, he's nice, kind, sweet...and he should be perfect for you. But when I see you with him, you just look bored. Like you're ready to fall asleep whenever he opens his mouth. So even if you don't like Scorpius, you should stop leading Sam on. It's...well, honestly it's mean, Rose!" she whispered, her pale face lit up oddly by the flickering candlelight.

Then I lost it.

"Look, you can't dictate my life! I'm happy with Sam, he's easy to be around and I like him. Everything you're saying about Scorpius is true, and if you believe it, then why do you expect me to ignore that and go be _his _girlfriend instead of Sam's? I hate him! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him! And right now, I don't like you guys very much! You think that anything you say must be true, all of you, but you still don't get me, after seven years! Merlin! Just leave me alone!" I screamed, flying out of the dormitory, still in my pajamas. The last thing I remember seeing is the exact same shocked expression, reflected on each and every one of my friend's faces.

_What in Merlin's name did I just do? Why did I get so angry? They were just teasing me. Oh, Merlin, of course they were teasing me! It's so obvious! I can't believe I blew up like that! I feel awful. Of course they just were having fun! I bet I totally killed the mood in there. Why do I always seem to ruin everything? I am a horrible, horrible person. Why do I even care? Scorp doesn't like me, of course he doesn't, my friends...well, I like them because they're fun to be around. Of course they were just having fun! Oh my Merlin, why did I just do that? I should go and apologise. I should beg them to forgive me. I should grovel. _

_But what did they mean about Sam? Why don't they think I should be with him? Mara's half wrong, half right - she said he should be perfect for me, but isn't. He should be perfect for me, and _is_. Why don't they see that? Sam is...he's easy to be around. It's so simple to be his girlfriend. I don't even have to do anything, he does all the work for me. Maybe it's not quite like how people always say it is, but it's a relationship, and one that I am totally happy to be in. I do feel a bit bad for Scorp, though. They were wrong. I was lying. I don't hate him. I don't think he's obnoxious, stuck-up, or...well, he is a Slytherin, but what difference does that make? I'm a Gryffindor! Saying someone's a Slytherin is like saying, "That person's a _redhead!_" What does that even mean? Why am I stressing about this? I don't care. For the love of Merlin, I'm going out with Sam! _

_Oh great, I forgot to revise my Herbology._

_Damn it, I need to schedule a Quidditch practice._

As all these thoughts were not running, not sprinting, but _galloping _through my head, I was completely unaware of the fact that I too was running. Apparently, I was running towards Hagrid's. I hadn't realised it, but I was now practically standing right in front of his door. I always came to Hagrid's whenever I had nowhere else to go. He always let me in, no matter what.

I knocked once. No reply. Twice. No reply. _He's probably asleep_, I realised. It was about one o'clock in the morning. _But the lights are on_. I'd known Hagrid all my life, and he never left the lights on when he went to sleep, I knew because whenever I snuck out of bed his hut was always in pitch darkness, indiscernible from the night sky and darkened grounds. Curious, I peered through the window. Hagrid was facing away from me, looking into the fire. I knocked on the window. He didn't turn around.

I don't know what did it. Something just clicked inside my brain, and I knew. I just knew. But I couldn't believe it. Tears were streaming down my face, but I kept knocking. I knocked and knocked and knocked on the window, but Hagrid didn't turn. He couldn't. All I could see of him was his grey, ruffled hair, and the shadow of the fire that sometimes lit up a side of his face.

"Please, Hagrid," I whispered, tears choking me. I knocked harder. "Hagrid open the door," I said, louder. "Just open the door, Hagrid. Stand up. Stand up and let me in. Please, Hagrid! Just open the door!" I screamed. I started banging on the window, sure that I must be about to smash the window.

"Hagrid! Hagrid! Get up! Don't do this!" I yelled. "Don't! Not like this! Not tonight! Please, Hagrid! Get up! Get up! Open the door!" I shrieked. I could hear footsteps approaching - I must have woken someone. There were several footsteps. I could hear lots of people running towards me. I didn't turn. Hagrid wouldn't like it if I gave up. He'd want me to wake him up. He had to just be asleep. Maybe dreaming. He was sleeping, that's all. That's all.

"Hagrid, wake up!" I cried, buckets of salty tears raining down my face. There was such a lump in my throat I couldn't have imagined anything so big. "Just wake up, Hagrid. Please! Just wake up! Hagrid! Hagrid!"

I felt someone lay a hand on my shoulder. I threw it off, not caring who it was, even though it was probably a professor. I heard someone near the door. I tore myself away from the window and began ramming myself at the door, trying to break it down. On my third attempt the door swung open, and I charged inside. Hagrid hadn't turned, but I couldn't let myself believe it. I heard one of the professors say my name, trying to stop me. I wouldn't let it happen. It wasn't true. This wasn't happening.

_Please, Hagrid. Not like this. Please._

But the half empty Firewhiskey on the side table, and the way Hagrid's head was lolling on one side were almost certain proof. I didn't stop though. I didn't stop until I was standing right in front of him, face to face. Hagrid's eyes were open, the flickering flames of his log fire reflected in his glassy eyes. The gasps of the professors confirmed it. I sank down onto my knees, mouthing his name, tears streaming off my face onto the old rug. I knew I couldn't do it. No matter how many times I called his name, he couldn't come back.

Hagrid was dead.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty-Two:**

I was sent to Professor MacPhersonis' office that night. I had apparently fainted when I'd seen Hagrid, so Professor Longbottom had carried me back into the castle. He'd been told to bring me to the Headmistress, so I'd woken up on an ornate, royal blue fabric sofa in Professor MacPhersonis' office.

"Why were you out of bed so late at night?" she'd begun with. I refused to answer her. Tears were still trickling down my face. How could she have asked that at a time like this?

She had then silently passed me a rock cake, which made me cry even harder - Hagrid's speciality - if they could have been called that - had been rock cakes.

"Rose, when someone dies, it is very hard to accept. Hagrid will be..._so _missed, by everyone here at Hogwarts School. He was a good man, and I think I speak for everyone here when I say that he was more than a professor. He was a friend. Particularly a good friend to you, and your family, Rose, I believe. He died peacefully, at least. It looks like he fell asleep and didn't wake up," she had said, quietly. I couldn't look at her. For a Headmistress of Hogwarts, Professor MacPhersonis looked surprising normal. Her robes weren't outstanding, her neat blonde hair was long down her back, and her hat was plain black. She was quite pretty, and young - sometimes, I wondered how a girl barely fifteen years older than me had landed the job. Now I saw why. She spoke to people like they weren't students, or colleague. She treated them a friends. And I suddenly understood that she really would miss Hagrid. Not as much as Lily, Al, Hugo or I would, but she was still mourning him.

She had leaned forward across her desk. "Is there anybody I should contact about this?" she enquired.

"My parents," I'd replied immediately. "My Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny."

The Headmistress had smiled. "I'll make sure they come as soon as possible. Is there anyone else?"

I'd paused. There was someone else who should come. I just didn't know how to contact them.

"Well," I'd said, "I think Olympe - I mean, Madame Maxime, should come. She meant a lot to...to..." I'd choked on Hagrid's name, and before long I was crying again. How could Hagrid be dead? It was impossible. Hagrid was as much a part of Hogwarts as the Forbidden Forest, the Black Lake, or the castle itself. _Hogwarts isn't the building. It's not made of brick, or wood or chalk. It's made by the people who live here, by the way the trees bend in the breeze, by the way the Merpeople sing at night, by the way smoke would spiral out from Hagrid's chimney when he lit a fire. The people are a part of Hogwarts as much as it's a part of them._

I'd been taken back to my dormitory. There would be an announcement about Hagrid tomorrow. Everyone was long since asleep, so I'd quietly fallen into my bed and taken a sleeping potion that I always kept in my bottom drawer in case of emergencies. I didn't want to lie awake and think about Hagrid, and so gratefully sunk into unconsciousness.

That night I'd dreamed. I'd dreamed a lovely dream. Instead of finding Hagrid gone, he'd opened his door, and called me his favourite girl, and taken me inside and given me rock cakes and tea in a mug so big I could barely clasp my hands around it. Then all of our friends had come in, all of my family, and we'd all sat on the floor and just talked for a while. Then Olympe had come in too, and she had kissed Hagrid's withered cheek and sat down next to him and then we had all gone outside and left the two of them in there, but I could hear them laughing and talking to each other. I heard her tell him she loved him, and would never leave him. I had then gone up to the castle and walked into the common room, and there was a giant chocolate frog, who could talk. He'd told me that I would be given good luck for a long time, as long as I smiled. So I smiled, and suddenly I was eating the chocolate frog and it was telling me that Hagrid was happy right now, and the chocolate was really good, and I should keep on eating it...

Then I'd woken up, and realised that it was the beginning of NEWTs week. They'd managed to cram all the exams into one week, and I was grateful for that. I knew every single fact in every one of my books, but...

But how could I sit an exam with Hagrid gone? I'd been planning to surprise him, and go down to his hut at the end of the week with a basket of muffins and talk to him about Olympe. But I couldn't. He was gone.

I should have been expecting it. He was an old man. I'd just always assumed that giants - even half ones - lived longer than humans. Maybe the human side of Hagrid had overpowered him, when it came to his death. Maybe he was more human than we'd realised.

My friends had forgiven my outburst quickly. I think they felt bad about slandering Sam behind his back, and were making an extra effort to be nice to him. I did appreciate this, since it meant that Sam could be kept occupied by, say, Sheila helping him with his History of Magic essay whilst I went to have a guitar lesson. Scorp was really helping me learn, and I was really grateful for what he was doing for me. However, there was a new, conscious edge to my thoughts. It had sparked from that fateful question on the night of the sleepover. _Of course Scorp isn't in love with me_, I repeatedly told myself in the days following. It was impossible, since I knew that even if he didn't dislike me _that _strongly, we would most definitely not be anything close to friends for any longer than we had absolutely to be. Still, I made a point of being extra careful at my next guitar lesson. I'd been friendly, but I'd kept my distance from him as much as possible. However, after fifteen minutes, I had no idea what my friends had been talking about. Scorp was _not _in love with me! He was just fun to be around. There were no strange gazes, deep, personal questions or sentimental moments, that I'd come to expect as the norm from Sam. Scorpius was laughing, strumming and we were both laughing our heads off the whole time. Then I'd remembered - I wasn't supposed to be laughing so soon after Hagrid's death. Then I'd had an idea.

"Scorp," I'd said, as we were strolling back up to the castle, just after five o'clock. He'd turned to look at me, listening. "Would you mind helping me with something?"

He'd smirked. "Depends on what it is. If it's homework, no. If it's shopping, definitely no," he'd chuckled. I'd shaken my head.

"Very funny. No, what I was going to ask is...well...would you help me write a song for...for Hagrid?" I'd whispered, tears welling up in my eyes. I'd turned my face away from him, not wanting him to see me cry.

"When do you want to get it done?" he'd replied, immediately.

I'd shrugged, willing the tears to cease. "Before the funeral, I guess."

There'd been the announcement about Hagrid as promised the morning afterwards at breakfast. Professor MacPhersonis has stood up, and explained to everyone that Hagrid was gone. Every one of the girls taking Care of Magical Creatures had cried. Usually Lily was tough, tougher than me by far, but I'd seen her bawling her eyes out. I understood - to everyone in our family Hagrid was more than just a teacher. He'd been a part of the family, and he'd been closer to Lily than anyone else. Every week she had gone down to his hut, to make sure he was alright - one time, when I was walking past his hut, I saw her tucking a blanket over him after he'd fallen asleep. I couldn't remember a time when I'd come home from school in the summer, and Dad hadn't asked, "How was Hagrid?", or when Mum hadn't invited him over to our house on his birthday. It had always been such a happy day. We couldn't all fit inside the house, because of Hagrid's size, so we'd always sit in the back garden and force a party hat onto Hugo's head, and then the Potters would visit and we'd all have roast dinner.

My family was going to come to the funeral. It was going to be in three days time, just under a week after Hagrid's death. Naturally, Scorpius had been a bit anxious about getting a song done in that short amount of time.

"Are you sure that's long enough?" he'd asked. I'd shaken my head.

"No, but I want to try anyway," I'd said, as much determination as possible in my voice. So Scorp had stopped in his tracks, spun around said,

"Well, then, let's get started."

So now here I am, sitting down, trying to write a song to say to Hagrid everything I should have said when I had the chance. At one point, Scorpius stopped me.

"Do you miss him?" he asked, quietly. I made a face.

"Take a wild guess," I rolled my eyes, praying not to cry.

"I know, I know. I guess you knew him all your life, didn't you?" he muttered.

I nodded. "He was...family, I guess. He was Lily's godfather, you know," I murmured. Lily had been distraught ever since the announcement. I'd seen her a few times with Aphelia and her other friends - every time there had been somebody comforting her. It only bugged me slightly when it was older boys whom ordinarily she wouldn't even give the time of day to.

"They must have been close," Scorpius said, quietly. I could hear him scribbling something down furiously.

Sniffing, I said, "They were."

For a few moments there was nothing but the faint scratching of Scorpius writing on the parchment we were using to write the song lyrics.

"I once had a friend who died too, you know," he muttered, still writing. I looked up at him, tearing up again.

"Who?" I asked, quietly.

"This guy I'd known since I was about five. We were, like, really close. But then he got cancer a few years ago, and...well," Scorpius muttered, never taking his gaze from the song he was scribbling down.

"What was his name?" I asked, keeping my voice low.

Scorpius turned his eyes towards me. "Luke."

I paused before replying.

"Sorry I dragged you into this. It must be...boring. And not exactly nice," I said quietly, realising what an arduous task this must be for him.

"What? I don't mind. And it's not boring. I liked Hagrid too, I think this is a really nice thing you want to do for him," Scorpius said nonchalantly, evidently not willing to talk about Luke. I raised my eyebrows.

"I thought you hated hanging out with me," I mentioned, smiling slightly. I heard Scorp chuckle.

"Is it that obvious? Yes, Rose, even though I do guitar lessons with you _optionally_, each second that I spend doing them are without a doubt the worst parts of my life," he smirked. _I'm not really sure what to make of that..._

"So...you _don't _hate me? Is that what you're saying?" I asked, not looking directly at him. Scorpius laughed once.

"No, I don't hate you," he muttered. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good." It just slipped out somehow, I wasn't meaning to say it. But, of course it's good to find out someone doesn't hate you! Everyone in the world probably wants to be universally liked, no matter how impossible that is. _But it's good to know that I'm one person closer_.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty-Three:**

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

I'd been tapping my foot against the side of my desk for over half an hour. It was my final NEWT, my Transfiguration written exam. It had been so ridiculously easy I was surprised they were even allowed to have it as a NEWT exam. More like a third-year summer exam. I'd learnt every single thing in there years ago. I was pleased that the fact I'd done no revision whatsoever had been of little consequence. _I inherited my mother's brains. I inherited my father's laziness. _

The ticking of the clock was irritating. As soon as the exam was over, the entire school would be going to the lawn in front of Hagrid's hut for the funeral. Many parents were coming especially for it, mine included. I couldn't understand how they expected us all to sit exams on the same day as his funeral. _Then again, it was stupidly easy._

"Time's up. Sit quietly whilst we collect your papers." Professor Hippelby squeaked, waving his wand over the enormous hour-glass at the front of the Great Hall. I sighed, relieved - but now also terrified about what was coming next. All of my exams were over, but the next hour would be a test of what it would take to make me cry. I was guessing all it would take would be seeing the coffin. A tear fell onto my paper. _Oh great. Even thinking about it makes me cry. _I ignored the person who swept my paper off my desk. I ignored Hippelby announcing that we could leave. _Why did he have to die_?

I stood up, and immediately felt a familiar arm around my shoulder. I smiled.

"You ok?" Albus asked. I shook my head.

"No," I admitted. I heard Al sniff.

"Me neither. Let's go," he said, solemnly.

The walk down to Hagrid's hut seemed much shorter than usual. Ordinarily I was aware of my feet moving, but now it was like _blink _and I was there. Seats had been set up, and already there was a full house. I couldn't believe how many people there were. Hundreds. All these people remembered Hagrid, and wanted a chance to say goodbye. I saw Lily and Hugo sitting with our family - my parents, their parents, our various uncles and aunts - in the front row. James was here, too, next to his parents, and he had his arm around Mara, who was sitting beside him, her head on his shoulder. I ignored this bit. Al guided us to the front row, where there were two seats Hugo had saved for us. As we walked past, I noticed Scorpius sitting with a man who looked remarkably like him, and realised it must be his father, and the dark-haired lady on his other side was his mother. They were all sitting stiffly, formally, as if there were strangers rather than a family. I saw Albus turn and grin at Scorpius, who grinned back, ignoring the disapproving look from his mother. _I hope they're friends again. _I thought I noticed a guitar protruding from under his seat, but by the time I'd worked out what it was I was being urged to sit down by my parents, who were sitting next to Hugo. Mum was already wiping her eyes with a handkerchief, and Dad's eyes were red, like he was about to cry, or had been crying before. I couldn't cry yet. I wouldn't.

I heard a gasp from behind me. I turned, and saw the first-year girl who had made the gasp gazing up at the sky, and gesturing to her friend, who looked up. I looked too at wherever she was pointing, and had my breath taken away. Up there, in the sky, an enormous blue carriage pulled by winged horses was soaring towards us, over the Black Lake, flying in such an elegant manner that it was impossible to believe it was flying, rather than moving on a flat road. I could see it was making it's descent, and by now every attendant at the funeral was gazing at it too. The beautiful white horses slowly made contact with the grass, leaving no trace of it's presence in the clear, blue sky. For a moment everyone was gazing, awestruck - then we were all dumbstruck.

If a basilisk had materialised in the centre of the land right there and then, and petrified every living being in sight, it would have made no difference at all. We were all frozen, as the woman who emerged from the blue carriage was none other than Madame Maxime.

"Olympe," I breathed. She was a handsome woman, with short, dark hair, and olive skin, and there was no doubting who she was by her magnificent height. Or by the despairing expression etched into every line of her face.

She walked with dignity to a seat that with a wave of her wand she enlarged and with another flick strengthened, then sat down upon it, staring ahead at Hagrid's coffin, her eyes swimming with tears. Aunt Fleur was the first to approach her, and I remembered that Madame Maxime had been her Headmistress at one point. Aunt Fleur greeted her enthusiastically.

"Madame Maxime! Eet has been too long!" she purred, air kissing her on both cheeks, traces of her french accent coming back as they usually did when she was upset and trying to remain composed. Madame Maxime simply smiled at her, too sad to do so with any real truth to it. I heard a cough from near to me, and a tall, thin wizard in deep indigo robes was standing by the podium the professors had erected for this very moment. By his cough I knew it was time. _Time to say goodbye._

He began in a very solemn, deep voice. He said all of the things you would expect to hear at funerals, things like what a great man or woman the deceased is, how they will be missed.

"And now, I would like to ask Olympe Maxime to say a few words," he said, protruding into my own personal idea of what should be happening. In my head, it wouldn't be all these people that Hagrid barely knew, no, it would be all his favourite creatures. Buckbeak, the Hippogriff he'd owned when my parents were my age. Aragog, his pet Acromantula. Norbert, the dragon he'd given to my uncle when it was still a baby. Fang and Fluffy, his dogs, and countless others. They would all be talking about how Hagrid, who had looked after them when no-one else would. Hagrid, who had cared for them because only he knew how to.

I saw a shadow creeping along the many rows of attendants, and saw Olympe was walking to the front, tears flowing freely from her eyes. She reached the front, and paused for a moment. Then she took off her overcoat, and suddenly everybody in attendance was gasping and whispering. She ignored them, and began.

"My name ees Olympe. I first met 'Agrid when my school, Beauxbatons, viseeted for ze Triwizard Tournament, many years ago. 'E was a good, good man...and I zink eet is safe to say, 'e loved me from ze start. Moi...well, when I got to know 'im, eet was imposseeble not to love 'im, too. No matter what, I loved 'im, and I 'ope zat 'e knew zat in ze end. 'E showed me dragons, one eveneeng, and ze way 'e spoke of zem, was so passionate I could not 'elp but zink 'What an incredeeble man 'e ees.' 'E was so knowledgeable about such zings zat occasionally eet shocked me, and I know that eef 'e were 'ere now 'e would shock me still. Zat was an incredeeble zing about 'im - ze fact zat 'e was so incredeeble. I fear zat in ze last few months 'e may 'ave forgotten zis, but nobody else deed," she paused to wipe away a tear, and then placed a hand on her stomach.

"I regret I 'ave not seen 'im recently, and our owl stock in France 'as been struck down with a terreeble disease so I was unable to write 'im...to tell 'im of ze fact zat he was going to be a father," she paused to look at his coffin, rubbing her swollen stomach, and she ignored the tears now pouring freely from her eyes.

"By ze time I knew for certain, eet was not practical for me to travel, so I tried every method I posseebly could to tell 'im. I 'ave not been able to write, I 'ave not been able to send some uzzer person over 'ere to tell 'im, and zen five days ago I get a letter telling me of 'is...of 'is...of 'is..." she stumbled on her final words, wiping away her tears. She recovered herself. "I of course, 'ad to come. I would not 'ave missed this for anyzing. 'Agrid...'e was a great man, an incredeeble man, ze most amazing man I was ever fortunate enough to know...and I just want everybody 'ere today to know zat. Zat...il était incroyable, et étonnant, et je l'aimais de tout mon cœur et le font encore," she whispered fervently in French, but her voice seemed to be magnified and it echoed off the turrets of the castle itself. She walked slowly over to his coffin, and laid one hand on a wreath of flowers that lay atop of the oak, then other hand on her stomach, where a tiny child lay sleeping, not knowing of it's father's death

"'Agrid...toujours. Sachez que. Toujours. Au revoir," she whispered, and instantly I felt as if it was her, all alone in an empty room, just her and Hagrid...and the baby. I can't believe Hagrid was going to be a father! I wish he'd known...

A shadow passed over us again as Olympe walked past to return to her seat. I felt so bad for her too. _I wish there'd been some way for everything to turn out right for them. I suppose everything isn't always perfect in the end._ I turned to look briefly and Madame Maxime large, pregnant stomach. _But some things are good, too._

I heard the tall thin wizard begin to talk again, so I tried to focus on him. There was a poem read by Professor MacPhersonis, another one by Professor Longbottom, and then an obituary from Uncle Harry. It was nearly over. _Nearly time for goodbyes._

"And now, I would like to invite Scorpius Malfoy, a student here, to say goodbye to Rubeus Hagrid," I heard the wizard say. _What?_ _Scorpius? He didn't really know Hagrid! What's he doing?_

I saw Scorpius walking up the front. Nobody was questioning his presence there like I was. Instead of standing, he pulled up a chair and sat down. There were a couple of whispers about this. _Is it normal to sit down when you speak at a funeral?_

"Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us here today to celebrate Hagrid's life. I would like to say that even though I didn't really know him except as a particularly kind professor and man, I feel like I've gotten to know him over the last few days, when I was writing this," he paused, then reached behind his chair and pulled out his guitar.

"If she's able, I'd like to invite Rose Weasley to come and sing it with me. She was the one who wrote this really, and the way she spoke about Hagrid made me think that there was so much of him I didn't know about and so much that I realised I really wanted to know."

_Me! He means me! He wants me to go and sing!_

Scorpius looked at me, then back at everybody else. "If she can't sing right now, then I'm perfectly happy to sing her part. It just seems more meaningful if it was by someone who knew Hagrid like she did," he said, and although his voice was quiet, like with Olympe's, it seemed to echo around the trees, the flowers and every single one of the blades of grass that Hagrid had ever walked on.

I stood us, shakily. "I'll sing," I said quietly, looking down at my feet. Scorp smiled slightly at me, encouragingly, then pulled out another chair for me to sit on. I sat down on it, grateful - if I'd had to stand my knees probably would have collapsed.

"So, this is a song we wrote for Hagrid," Scorpius told everyone. _You don't say._

I heard him play the first chord, and then the introduction. I opened my mouth to start and prayed my voice wouldn't crack.

"_If there's really anything left to say,_

_I'd better say it now,_

_Wish there'd been a bit longer,_

_I'd make the time somehow,_

_There's so much to say,_

_And no one to say it to,_

_But there's no other time or place,_

_So I'll say it right here, right now._

_Incredible, wonderful, amazing, phenomenal,_

_The way you care about creatures is unstoppable,_

_Your my favourite part of Hogwarts, Hagrid,_

_Much, much, much, much, much better than the Giant Squid,_

_You are not alone, so please remember, now..._

_That we'll all be with you…_

_You were family to me,_

_Don't ever forget that,_

_You got family here, too_

_So much bigger than you_

_Ever dreamed it could possibly be_

_And they all love and miss you,_

_But there's no other time or place,_

_I'll say it right here, right now._

_If you get lost,_

_You know where to go,_

_You just got to,_

_Let it show,_

_If you get lost,_

_In the dead of night,_

_Just follow the spiders,_

_And everything will be alright!_

_Incredible, wonderful, amazing, phenomenal,_

_The way you care about creatures is unstoppable,_

_Your my favourite part of Hogwarts, Hagrid,_

_Much, much, much, much, much better than the Giant Squid,_

_You are not alone, so please remember, now..._

_That we'll all be with you…_"

I saw that my family was crying. I hoped that I wasn't _that _bad. But then I saw Mum smiling up at me through her tears, and I knew I'd done the right thing by writing the song. Without another word, Scorpius and I returned to our seats, not looking at each other.

I felt a nudge on my arm. I looked over and saw Dad leaning towards me.

"That was really nice, Rosie, thank you," he whispered, as the man in indigo robes came to the front and thanked me and Scorpius for our contribution, was talking for a couple of minutes, and then suddenly Uncle Harry and Dad were standing up, and so were another eight men, who all lifted Hagrid's coffin onto their shoulders and walked out with it. All eyes were on Hagrid's final departure from Hogwarts. They took him into the Forbidden Forest. A few people went with them, myself, my family, Madame Maxine included. We saw him lowered into the ground, laid to rest in the place that had been his home since he was a student. There were final goodbyes to be said, final tears to be shed.

We were back within half an hour.

It was that quick.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter Twenty-Four:**

"Please tell me you haven't been practicing, Scorpius," I'd said.

He'd shrugged. "What can I say? We've been practicing three times a week for a month. Sorry, Rose."

That was how I'd remembered that I needed to get my act together and get my team into shape for the final Quidditch match of the year. By the sounds of it, Slytherin were prepared to take us down within ten minutes of the game starting. Gryffindor needed to win this. Win this game, we'd win the Cup. And, as it was my final year, I think I'd like to win the Cup.

I got the word out somehow. The match was in two weeks, so we'd be practicing every other night until then, and the nights in between occasionally, if that was ok with my team. Everyone was fine to come along to all the practices I scheduled, and thankfully it seemed they had been keeping up their training. They were all great, and I knew we were in with a chance. We had never played better, and I knew that even if we didn't win - Merlin forbid - we would have at least put up a decent fight.

A couple of hours before the big match, as I was about to head down to the pitch, Lily came up to me. She had this look on her face that suggested she wanted to speak in private, so without a word _I _grabbed _her _sleeve and pulled her over to one side of the common room.

"What now, Lily? Are we doing something about the plan?" I asked, quietly. She brushed her bangs away from her eyes.

"Sort of. Well, in a minute. What I really want to talk to you about is Scorp," she whispered, grinning. I groaned.

"Not you too, Lily! Why does everyone think he's in love with me?" I moaned, checking over my shoulder to see if anyone was listening.

Lily shrugged offhandedly. "Because he is. But that's not my point. Now, the whole school thinks you and Scorpius are dating, because of that song..."

"The whole school?" I hissed, interrupting her. _What about Sam?_

Lily sighed. "Rose, quit interrupting me. Now, the whole school will want you to be seen with him a little more at the final part of the plan, so do you think you can do that? Good," she said, without waiting for me to reply, "When's your prom?" she asked suddenly.

"Three weeks from Friday," I answered automatically. Leanne, Mara and I had gone over the details so many times I could have told her what colour balloons we were having. I'd shown them the Room of Requirement and they had fallen in love with it. It was all cleaned, and we were going to begin setting everything up a couple of days before. We had a lot of time on our hands now that the NEWTs were over. "Why do you want to know?" I asked Lily.

"Because I want to do the final part of the plan a day before. Can you let us use the Room of Requirement?" she asked.

"How do you know about the Room?" I asked, puzzled. Lily laughed.

"Please, my parents basically _lived _in there when they went here! Professor Longbottom actually _did_ live in there at one point," she lowered her voice to a whisper as she told me this. _That's kind of creepy. Moving on..._"Anyway, can I use it? I know I asked months ago, but I just want to make sure we were still all good to go," she grinned.

"Actually, I'd prefer if you didn't. We need to get everything set up in there that day, so it's not all last minute on the actual day," I explained. Lily hesitated, then shrugged.

"Whatever. Am I coming?" she asked, suddenly. I made a face. She smirked back

"Lily, please don't come. It's a seventh-year thing and, well, you'd kind of be gate crashing," I groaned.

"What?" Lily exclaimed, putting her hands on her tiny hips. "No way, I'd just hang out with...I don't know, maybe Al could take me," she sighed. Now it was my turn to make a face.

"Al would not take his _little sister _as his date! It's gross!" I cried, causing a few heads to turn in our direction. Lily shushed me.

"I didn't mean as his date! For one thing, totally _eew_! And I would have no problem getting any other guy in your year to take me, for another!" she purred. I rolled my eyes.

"What, you're going to go out with Andy again just to get to this party I'm organising? Lily, no, I don't want you to come to this. Organise one for your own year!" I exclaimed, walking away. I felt her grab my arm. I whipped round.

"What now?" I moaned. Lily didn't actually look upset that I'd banned her from the prom.

"Just wanted to let you know that a few days before your prom that I am _uninvited _from," stressing the word _uninvited,_ "come to the courtyard for the final part of the plan. It's going to be awesome," she squealed, her excitement overpowering her indignation at her being unwelcome at my prom. As she walked away, I saw that there was a slightly triumphant edge to the way she was walking. _Yeah, she's going to come to my prom anyway._

I continued on my way down to the pitch, my bright red Quidditch robes flapping around my heels. The spectators wouldn't be here for a while, and neither would the rest of my team. I'd told them to arrive in an hour and a half. It meant that I could have an hour and a half of free flying. As I was heading down, I noticed Katy Bluehalph and her friends sitting on the lawn. I paused. _Maybe I'll take a little detour._ I strolled over to the little gang of fifth-years. I heard their whispers die down as I got closer, and they all turned to look at me.

"Can I speak to Katy for a moment?" I asked, drawing myself up to my full height. Katy looked up at me, caught off guard, before letting out a nervous laugh and jumping up and following me a little distance away. I turned around to face her - _wow, she's tiny! Like, a head shorter than me! _

"I'll make you a deal. A bet. Gryffindor loses, I give you ten galleons. Gryffindor wins, you go on a date with my brother," I grinned. Katy's face became extremely long as her mouth dropped open.

"You want me to go out with your brother?" she asked, incredulously. I cocked my head to one side.

"Well, only if Gryffindor wins. If we lose, then you get ten galleons. How about it?" I drawled. Katy recovered herself, and was suddenly grinning madly. "Dude, you don't have to pay me, I'm in!And I won't tell Hugo you asked me, either," she laughed. _What? I thought she had a boyfriend. Does she actually like my brother? _Judging by the way Katy was strutting back to her friends, the way she announced that she was going to go out with Hugo, the way her friends leapt up and hugged her, probably meant that she did. _Well that's taken care of._

I dashed into the changing room, dumped my cloak - they really just irritated me when I was flying - tied my hair up into a side ponytail, and within a minute I was soaring out into the pitch.

I loved flying. I loved how the wind whipped my hair back from my face when I flew into the wind. I loved how you could reach such a height that grass, trees, people, became so small that everything seemed insignificant apart from the fact that I was flying.

I'd been flying for about an hour before I heard a voice call my name. I spun around, hovering a few feet above the speaker. I smiled. "Hey," I called out.

Sam flew up to my level. "Hey," he replied. I knew he was going to try that thing again, when he just gazes into my eyes for ages. So I swooped lower. "Catch me if you can!" I cried, and then I was zooming across to the other side of the pitch, and I could hear Sam following me, laughing. I turned around to see how close he was to catching me - his fingers were just brushing the tips of the sticks attached to my broom. I suddenly twisted higher, going almost vertically, and I could see Sam just beneath me, and I was shooting, spiraling, twisting higher and higher! I was quite breathless by this point, so I slowed down and my broom resumed a horizontal position. Sam was by my side in an instant. He grinned, then suddenly was sweeping me off my broom with one arm, and I found myself sitting next to him on his Cleansweep 43. "Gotcha," he smirked.

Suddenly he was kissing me, kissing me like he hadn't done in months. He wrapped his warm arms around me, and I folded mine around him - keeping my eyes open so that the vision thing that always happened to me wouldn't ruin the moment. I felt one hand creeping up into my hair, and then his hand was tangled in my hair, pulling it out of it's already untidy ponytail.

I guess it was nice, to be there, just kissing someone on a broomstick in the sky. It just wasn't special. It was fun, and enjoyable, but suddenly I realised that if it was anyone else, that I'd been dating and was now here kissing me, instead of Sam, I wouldn't feel any less attracted to them. I mean, I wasn't overly attracted to Sam. I didn't feel anything more for him than I would any other boy. _I don't love him._ Sam had told me that he loved me about a month ago.

"Rose, I love you," he'd said to me one evening, after we'd snuck into Hogsmeade for a date. We were sitting in the Three Broomsticks drinking Butterbeer, and suddenly he'd just told me. I hadn't hesitated to hug him.

"Me too," I'd whispered into his ear.

It only just occurred to me that I had avoided giving an answer. I hadn't said that I didn't love him, I hadn't said that I had loved him. _Me too_ could have meant that I loved myself too, but obviously from the way Sam was wrapping me around him I could tell he had taken it in the way that meant I loved him. _But you're so nice! You should be perfect for me. You're funny, and sweet, and boy, are you a good kisser! I just don't think these things equal love. My friends were right. I don't like him as much as I say I do._

_But I can't tell him now, just before the game! I can't tell him that we have to break up now! I'll tell him after the game. Merlin, I'm not looking forward to that._

Sam let me go. He flew us both down to the ground, after grabbing my broomstick - which had been patiently hovering a couple of feet away - as soon as we touched down I quickly dismounted. I kissed him on the cheek quickly before reminding him that people would be arriving here in fifteen minutes and we had to go into the changing rooms. My guilt was already rising in my stomach.

Aphelia and Hepiliya were in the changing room, and at the same time that Sam and I walked in, Aaron and Jonathan arrived too.

"Where's Al?" I asked, looking around the room. He was the only one missing. Aaron coughed awkwardly. I whipped round to look at him. "What? Where is he?" I repeated.

Aaron and Hepiliya exchanged looks. "He got knocked out by Scorpius Malfoy. Al, Scorpius and Hugo had another duel about an hour ago, shouting stuff about...He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He's alright, woke up after a few minutes, but Madame Pomfrey put him on bed rest. He can't play, Rose," Hepiliya explained. I groaned. _When are they going to stop this? This is ridiculous! They can't keep fighting all the time for no reason at all! Both times they actually got hurt! And now we don't have a Seeker. Thanks, Scorp. Thanks an awful lot._

"If you ask me, it was deliberate," Jonathan muttered, running a hand through his hair. I raised my eyebrows. Jonathan saw my questioning expression and elaborated. "I mean, Malfoy's the Slytherin Seeker, Al's the Gryffindor Seeker...I'm saying Malfoy probably knocked him out to increase his chances of winning. Of course he's going to deny it, but it's pretty obvious," Jonathan sighed. _No, Scorp wouldn't do that...would he? They _have _been fighting a lot recently...but I thought they'd made up now? No, it was for the plan, I'm sure. At least, I think I'm sure..._

"What do we do, Captain?" Aphelia asked, breaking my train of thought. I blinked, then realised she meant about the missing Seeker.

"We could play one man down..." Aaron muttered. I shot him a look.

"Of course we can't play without our Seeker. We'd lose the game before you could say _Quidditch."_

"Quidditch," Jonathan chuckled. I glared at him.

"Shut up," I snapped. I racked my brain, casting my mind back to the trials I'd conducted months ago. Orphis had been good, but he might be too violent and get us a penalty. And Lucy...

"Ok, Hepiliya, go and find a second-year girl called Lucy Tomlinson. Tell her she's going to play," I instructed. Hepiliya dashed out without hesitation.

"Lucy was the second-best person I tried out for Seeker. We'll have to use her," I explained. My team shrugged.

"We don't care who it is so long as their good," Aphelia grinned, sitting down on one of the benches.

"Why didn't you pick her in the first place?" Sam asked. I shrugged.

"Al was better, and she kept letting go of my owl because she cared way too much about animals. But this is different, this is real Quidditch. She can't think she's going to hurt a Snitch." _At least, I hope._

We were all on edge about substituting so late, fifteen minutes before the match started, but really we had no alternatives. _I'm going to kill Scorpius._ Hepiliya arrived back with Lucy barely a five minutes later. Lucy looked terrified.

"Why am I playing?" she whispered as soon as she came in, looking anxiously around at everyone. She had a right to be nervous. First of all, this morning she hadn't even known she was going to be playing in the match that decided whether Gryffindor won or lost. Secondly, well...

She was in a room with a bunch of big kids.

I walked over to her. "Hey, I'm Rose. I'm the Team Captain. You're playing because the Seeker is in the Hospital Wing, and you were my next choice at the try outs a few months ago," I explained. I saw Hepiliya rummaging in her kitbag, and then she was thrusting a spare uniform into Lucy's arms. Lucy seemed to have relaxed a little bit, thankfully.

She nodded. "Well, thanks, I guess. So...any tactics I should know before we play?" she asked, in a little mouse voice. I decided I liked Lucy.

"Just stay out of the way until you see the Snitch. Then play for your life," Sam chuckled. I kept an eye on Lucy's expression, anxious she might be taking him seriously, but luckily she seemed to be giggling too.

"Sam, when does the match start?" I asked. He checked his watch.

"Ten minutes," he replied promptly. I sighed, then turned back to Lucy.

"Better put your uniform on," I told her.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter Twenty-Five:**

It was dark. Really, pitch black dark. We were standing in the place where we would enter the pitch in a matter of moments. My teammates faces showed different emotions - Sam, eagerness. Aphelia, anxiety. Lucy, pure terror. I patter her on the back.

"Just remember these few things. One, stay out of the way until you or Malfoy sees the snitch. Two, don't play tricks you don't know how to pull off. Three...well, you can't hurt a Snitch, so don't be afraid to grip it tightly," I muttered in her ear. Lucy laughed nervously, then pushed a tuft of strawberry blonde hair over her ear. _If we win, Lucy will be a hero._

Then I remembered something. I barged my way back to wear Aaron and Aphelia were standing, holding their bats.

"Don't be afraid to give Scorpius hell for what he did to my cousin," I told them. Aaron nodded eagerly at this - usually I was against violence and more in favour of knocking the brooms or the Quaffle. _This time it's war._

I hurried back to my spot just as the barrier lifted, and suddenly I felt very exposed. _We're about to play the final match of the year with a substitute from the second year. _Even though I had faith in Lucy, I couldn't help but be nerve-wracked about the situation. _And I'm Captain! It's all on my shoulders now, isn't it? If we win, great for me. If we lose...bad day to be Rose Weasley._

Momentarily, I was blinded by the sudden light we found ourselves thrown into. However, the moment I mounted my broom, I knew that I'd be fine. My team were in fine shape to take on Slytherin. We knew our tactics - besides Lucy - we knew how to play, and we knew Slytherin's weakness - Patrick Donnell had a weak left arm. Lena Swann couldn't catch the ball from a distance, and if you interfered with Liam Jackson's face...well, you could make him cry like a little girl. _I'll make sure I do that. For Leanne's sake._

We were flying. We were hovering in a semicircle, facing the Slytherins. I could see a couple of spectators whispering about Lucy's presence, but I would have been confused too if I were them.

Suddenly, something went wrong with my eyesight. Everything started happening in slow motion. The Quaffle gradually arrived in my line of sight, and even though I tried to move at normal speed I also seemed to be moving in slow motion. And the crowds were suddenly silent, too. It was as if it was just me on the pitch against...no one. I was just throwing and catching the ball. I lunged forward to catch the ball - everything still seemed about half as slow as it should be, yet nobody else had noticed. I found the Quaffle was in my hands. I gripped the end of my broomstick and was suddenly moving at the highest speed I could have possibly imagined in a world where speed seemed fifty percent slower. I arched my back, and threw the ball as hard as possible. Obviously things weren't in slow motion for Jack Parkinson, who barely had time to turn around to look at the ball as it passed through the left hoop.

And just like that, my world was normal again. I could hear the spectators cheering, and everything was at normal speed again. _Good._

"Ten points to Gryffindor!" Zachary Hiller roared into the microphone, making my ears hurt form the sheer volume of his voice. I flew back to the centre. On the Slytherin team, Laticia was already passing to Kirk, who seemed to be planning to shoot from where he was. Quick as a flash, I was near Sam, defending the goalposts, but I needed have worried. The Quaffle fell short by a few metres, and Jonathan dashed forwards to catch it. He passed to Hepiliya, who passed back to him, and soon enough we scored again.

I cheered, then remembered what I'd decided to do to Liam Jackson. He was hovering by the Slytherin stands, basking in all the admiring _oohs _and _aahs_ from all of the girls. I flew next to Aphelia. "Do me a favour, and hit Liam Jackson with a Bludger," I muttered. She looked at me, surprised. "Preferably in the face," I added. She grinned at me, then flew off to hit a Bludger away from Sam.

Lena had possesion of the Quaffle. "She passing left, right and centre!" Zachary Hiller cried. "Swann passes to Jomail, who passes back to Swann, who passes to Lypicious..." _Damn, Slytherin are good._

Laticia was coming towards the goal. I knew she was going to score before she did, as Sam was on completely the wrong side to protect the goal. Zachary Hiller announced it barely two seconds later.

"And Lypicious has scored, yes scored! Ten points to Slytherin!" he bellowed. "What's Clarke doing?" he suddenly asked. I turned around, searching for Aphelia. Then I smiled. _Clarke has just hit a Bludger towards Jackson._

Liam Jackson's cries echoed around the pitch. His nose looked like it was broken, but it wasn't bleeding. I looked into the audience to see Leanne's face. When I finally located her, she had a triumphant smirk on her face, as if to say,"You broke my heart, we broke your nose." _Fair trade._

"My face! My face!" Liam was screaming. He was taken down for a brief examination, however Madame Pomfrey proclaimed she didn't see any difference, to which Liam shouted, "My nose looks _ugly_! None of me has ever looked ugly before!" but he was sent back up to play a minute later, with a very ugly scowl on his face. I grinned. "Serves you right," I muttered. Suddenly, someone threw me the ball, I'm not sure who, so I shot off to attempt a goal. I saw that Hepiliya was open, so I passed to her, when suddenly Kirk Jomail tackled her broomstick, wrestling with it. She let out a little shriek, and Madame Lawson blew her whistle sharply.

"Foul! Blagging! Blagging! Penalty!" she cried.

Kirk bellowed, "I wasn't grabbing her broom! I wasn't!" but Madame Lawson shouted him down, and insisted on the penalty. I told Jonathan to take it - he was the best at scoring. Sure enough, a minute later the score was thirty to us, ten to them.

From then on, we alternated scoring. Not deliberately, but that was just the way it happened. Gryffindor would score, then Slytherin. Gryffindor, then Slytherin. Half an hour later, the score was seventy to Gryffindor, fifty to them. I nudged Sam. "Up your game, a little. If we work a little harder we could win this match brilliantly. Red alert, constantly, ok?" I told him quietly. Sam nodded, the smirked. "Do I get a kiss good luck?" he asked. I paused, then pecked him on the mouth quickly. "Good luck," I grinned at him, then patted his shoulder and flew off. _I probably shouldn't have, if I'm going to break up with him later. Maybe I'll wait a bit, though. Break up with him in a week or so._

As promised, Sam stopped letting in the Quaffle almost every time. Another thirty minutes passed, Slytherin only scored once, we scored four times. _Fifty points in the lead. We can do this._

We worked out a fairly efficient system. Sam would stop the opposing team from scoring, then get Hepiliya to shoot long straight from the other side of the field. She was particularly good at that, and only missed once. After the match had been going on for almost two hours, the score was Gryffindor, one hundred and fifty, Slytherin, one hundred and twenty. We were just beating them, but a Snitch could change all of that.

"Oh, and Tomlinson, the Gryffindor substitute, has dived, I think she's seen something, but Malfoy's hot on her heels, oh they're getting very close...yes there's the Snitch, but neither of them has caught it yet, I hope it doesn't go too high or else we won't be able to see them..."

I whipped round, looking upwards, craning my neck to see them. _This is it. The deciding moment. _

Lucy and Scorpius were neck and neck - Lucy was more agile, and as she was using my broom was _just_ faster than Scorpius, but he was longer and more experienced, and could reach further than she could. It was impossible to tell who would catch it.

"Oh, look, while this exciting moment is going on, Weasley is about to get hit by a Bludger," Zachary Hiller chimed in. I barely had time to register his words before I knew I had to duck, and sure enough, a small iron ball flew through the spot where a second ago my head had been. I breathed a sigh of relief. _Thank you Merlin for Zachary's whimsy! _

"And Gryffindor's Lucy Tomlinson has caught the Snitch!" Zachary suddenly roared after I ducked. "Malfoy seemed to lose focus for a second back there, and by Merlin, it cost them the game! Gryffindor are awarded one hundred and fifty points, meaning that they now have three hundred points to Slytherin's one hundred a twenty, what an amazing match, but Gryffindor have done it, they've won the championship for the first time in five years!" Zachary screamed. I screamed too, out of pure joy - our first win in five years! _Has it really been that long?_ When we'd won last time I'd been a second-year, it was my first year on the team, and I'd thought that if we'd ever won again, it wouldn't have felt anywhere near as good - but this was a thousand times better, because I was Captain this time!

I dashed over to where Lucy was hovering, holding the Golden Snitch aloft in the air, her face radiant. I threw my arms around her. "We won, we won, we won!" I laughed, jubilant. When I had squeezed the life out of Lucy, I leaned back so as to see her face. I knew her joy must be even greater than mine.

"Thank you," she whispered, "for letting me play."

I laughed out loud. "Thank _you_!" I cried, just as Hepiliya arrived next to Lucy to hug her too.

The rest passed in a blur. I shook hands with Scorpius, the Slytherin Captain. We all dismounted our brooms. The Quidditch Cup was decked out in red and gold ribbons, and my team were photographed holding it up, laughing, our faces all turned to it, not the camera, our joy echoed in every single one of the Gryffindors. I arrived back at the common room, and this time I got there early. That is basically all I remember. Because I got really, really drunk at the victory party.

But I know that it was without a doubt the best day of my life.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter Twenty-Six:**

The next day was horrible. I mean, we were all still ecstatic, including me, about winning the championship...the only problem was, I was really, really hungover. That day passed in a blur. Not like the end of the Quidditch match had, though - that had been a blur because I couldn't take it all in, I was so happy - no, that day passed in a blur because I was only half conscious through all of it. I tuned most of that day out, with the help of sun glasses to hide my eyes.

A few days later, I was back to normal. Lessons hadn't exactly been discontinued, but nobody in the seventh-year bothered to turn up anymore. We'd already taken our NEWTs, what else was there to do? Instead, we spent most of our time just hanging out on the lawn. A few times Mara, Leanne, Harriet, Willa, Sheila and I went down into Hogsmeade, however after our fifth visit we discovered that Filch was a regular at the Hogs Head. As much as we liked to poke fun at Filch, according to Aberforth - who had remained on extremely good terms with my parents after the War - Filch was something of a happy drunk, and I don't think that any of us will ever be able to forget the sight of opening the door to the Hogs Head to find old, white-haired Filch hobbling around on a table singing _Odo The Hero _in the style of Celestina Warbeck. Aberforth had hurried over to us, and hissed, "Get out while you can!" We hadn't hesitated to run screaming. _Three words. Scarred. For. Life._

On the Friday one week before my prom, Lily and Albus rushed up to where I was sitting in the common room by the fire chatting to Hugo about his - apparently amazing - date with Katy Bluehalph.

"Guys, the finale is at five sharp!" she hissed, before running off, presumably to find Scorpius to tell him too. _Or to make out with another of her boyfriends. I think she's with Henry now..._

I looked up at Al. "Do you know what she's planning on doing?" I asked, making my voice quiet enough so that nobody could hear us.

Albus shrugged. "Search me. Nobody but her and Scorp knows," he muttered, again keeping his voice low. I frowned.

"On the topic of Malfoy," I began

"Scorpius," Al interjected.

"Did he or did he not knock you out before the match?" I hissed, the anger beginning to fizz in my stomach. Al laughed.

"Good, it was convincing," he chuckled.

"You mean you pretended to faint?" I asked, incredulously. Al laughed again.

"Sort of, but not quite," he smirked.

"What do you mean by _not quite_?" Hugo prompted. Al looked over his shoulder, to check if anyone was watching, then sat down in an empty chair next to us.

"Well, we choreographed the whole thing, the curses," he started.

"You mean spells?" I asked, interrupting him. Al raised his eyebrows.

"No, the other kind of curses. Anyway, so he yelled a completely made up spell, something like _stuconlitasmos_, and then I swallowed a Fainting Fancy," he finished.

"You took a Fainting Fancy? Those things that Uncle George sells?" I asked, laughing. Al nodded, chuckling again. "But that means you knew you'd miss the match!" I complained. Al shrugged.

"You didn't miss me, and I look like a heroic guy that got knocked out by the bad guy, aka Scorp. I call that a success."

I had to concede his point. Lucy was a heroine throughout Gryffindor, and I was glad I'd picked her over Orphis - I hoped she would make the team next year. She had a real flair for Quidditch, and every single non-Slytherin student at the school suddenly wanted to be her best friend.

"What time is it, Rose?" Hugo asked. I looked at my wrist, only to remember that I had lost my watch a couple of weeks ago to Peeves, so I looked to Al, who checked Fabian Prewetts watch. "Quarter to five," he replied.

"Let's get down to wherever we're going," I shrugged, causing Al to laugh.

"We're going to the courtyard, hasn't Lily told you that?" Al grinned. I frowned. Lily had told me that, but what with all the other things on my mind recently - namely, getting over my hangover - it had been somewhat overshadowed.

As mundane as the walk down to the courtyard was, it struck me that I might not go that way very much more. I was leaving Hogwarts in a week. _How's that possible? I can't leave Hogwarts! _But I was. I was leaving in seven days. Or, rather I was leaving in eight days - the Hogwarts Express waited a day or so, so that we could get everything packed up. One time a boy left his owl in his dormitory, and the place became a bit of a pigsty. _We don't know to this day how the owl survived._

At five minutes to five, Lily rushed over to us. We had barely arrived when she was shoving Hugo and Al to this side, "You guys are taking a backseat. Rose is in the spotlight here. When I say, 'don't do it, Scorpius," that's when you guys run on, ok? Go and hide somewhere, it can't look like you were waiting for a cue. I redirected most students along here for various reasons, so we don't need to worry about a small audience," she hissed, throwing open the door to a broom cupboard and shoving her family inside. Just as she closed the door I heard Al mutter,

"I hate my sister." Lily apparently didn't hear this.

"So what do I do?" I asked her, ignoring Hugo's banging on the cupboard door. Lily kicked the door before replying.

"You improvise. Scorpius is going to do all the work for you. I've got him doing some heavy lifting right now. He should be here in a minute. As soon as he starts acting, you've got to run on and try to stop him. I think it will be even more convincing if you don't know what you're going to say, so from there you're on your own," she muttered, and the mob of students increased. We were surrounded by pupils everywhere, more than I'd ever seen in one place before.

"How did you get all these people here?" I asked.

"Oh, I just put up a bunch of notices telling them that their various clubs and missing crap was around here. Now you, go mix yourself in with them, _act natural_!" she hissed, pushing me into the mob.

"Just one more question," I called out. Lily groaned, then turned back to face me.

"What?" she hissed, brushing her bangs out of her heavily kohl-rimmed eyes.

"Why are Hugo and Al in the cupboard?" I whispered, looking furtively over my shoulder to check nobody was watching.

"You'll see," Lily smirked, then suddenly she too was hidden in the massing crowds of children.

Within moments Scorpius appeared, carrying a hugo stone bowl. _I guess that's what Lily meant by heavy lifting._ He walked with it into the middle of the courtyard, and suddenly the banging from Al and Hugo in the cupboard got much louder. I could tell it had started. When Scorpius slammed down the stone bowl on something I thought looked uncannily similar to a stone mandrake, everybody in the surrounding area went quiet. He bent low over the bowl, in which there seemed to be some sort of shimmering liquid. He then extracted a crystal phial from his robe pocket and tipped it's contents into the bowl.

Suddenly we all found ourselves staring at the form of a man who resembled a rat bending over the bowl. I knew this would be my cue, so I ran towards Scorpius.

"Scorpius, you _can't_!" I screamed. Scorpius didn't start at my voice - Lily must have told him what to expect. He kept staring at the bowl.

"He was dead. This man here was dead. But I brought him back. I brought him back, Weasley," Scorpius whispered, loudly. His eyes seemed to have a red tinge to them. It suddenly all seemed scarily real.

"Scorpius!" I begged him, but the strange, other man had already started talking.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!" the man whispered, and suddenly a horribly realistic bone appeared from nowhere, and dropped into the bowl. _I heard a splash, but I'm sure I couldn't see one..._

I took one step closer to Scorpius. "Stop it, Scorpius. Whatever you've done, just stop," I said, slowly and carefully, as if I didn't want to awake a slumbering beast, with vicious claws and poisonous fangs. He ignored me, as the strange man whimpered, "Flesh...of the servant...w-willingly given...you will...revive...your master," and then raised his right arm over the bowl of liquid, and in his left hand was a knife, gripped tightly as if his life depended on it..._oh no. No, no, no. Please, no._

I screamed and covered my eyes, and I heard the man scream too, a terrifying scream that pierced the hearts everybody watching. I heard several girls scream in horror. Scorpius laughed, a laugh that could be only be one thing - pure evil. Then there a horrible _plop_, as if something had fallen into a liquid. I opened my eyes - the man's arm had been severed at the wrist, and you could see all the...

"Scorpius, stop it! Stop this right now!" I yelled. The banging on the cupboard got louder.

"Don't do it, Scorpius!" I heard Lily cry from the other end of the courtyard. I looked around. _The entire school is watching this. This is big..._

Albus and Hugo suddenly burst out from the cupboard, wands raised. "Scorpius, no!" Albus bellowed. The rat man didn't appear to hear him.

"B-blood of the enemy...forcibly taken...you will...resurrect your foe." Suddenly, a arm appeared from nowhere, an arm that the rat man was now holding aloft. I got the impression it was a living arm, however it seemed to appear from nowhere. The silver knife the man had used to sever his hand was now piercing through the paled skin of this arm. A dribble of blood ran down, and trickled into a glass phial that the rat man was holding out, so as to collect the blood. _What is this..._

"Scorpius, just reverse it. Stop this, stop this now!" I cried. I realised I had started trembling and crying. _I never knew I was this good at acting_. _I should seriously consider this as a career._ Scorpius didn't reply. But his eyes had taken on a strange, red hue...

I felt it. I could just feel that the whole idea had possessed Scorpius, and now it was real. He was actually doing it. A little part of my brain told me _no, of course not, _but the way I had reacted to it all seemed truer than what my brain was telling was real. This was happening.

The man poured the blood he'd collected from the mystery arm into the stone bowl, then collapsed by the huge rock that it had been placed on, caressing what remained of his bleeding arm and quietly sobbing. The bowl started fizzing slightly, sending sparks in every direction. For a moment it was beautiful, I let out a little gasp, forgetting my anxiety. It looked as if the bowl were spitting diamonds, that glowed when light touched them, every facet sparkling in the evening light...

Then the image was obscured. Great clouds of steam suddenly surged from the bowl, shrouding everything else. I could barely see Scorpius - I couldn't see as far away as Al or Hugo.

"Scorpius," I whispered, as loudly as I dared. I thought I could see Scorpius pouring another fluid into the bowl, but then the mist thickened so that I couldn't even see my nose in front of my face. It was a horrible mist, cold and clammy, but as quickly as it had thickened it was gone, and suddenly...

Suddenly I saw a figure standing in the bowl, a life-sized figure, its feet hidden. But it was laughing, holding a wand aloft and laughing terribly. There were screams from the audience.

"Scorpius please, you can fight this! This isn't you, you've been Imperiused!" I yelled. Scorpius looked at me, then at Al and Hugo.

"Look at what I've created. I brought _him _back!" Scorpius cried, jubilantly, above the roars of laughter. I followed my instincts. I ran right up to Scorpius and stopped about a foot away from him.

"Please, Scorpius. Fight it," I whimpered, laying at hand on his chest, just above where his heart would be.

Scorpius flinched at my touch. Then his eyes clouded over for a second, like the spell _obliviate_ had been cast over him. Then suddenly he covered his eyes with his hands, just for a second - and then the red tinge was gone, his normal emerald eyes were back. I thought I saw him tuck a couple of red contact lenses in his robe pocket. Then he looked up at the form in bowl.

"Holy -" here Scorpius used quite colourful language. This made me more certain than anything else that he was back to his normal self.

"Is that...?" I yelled, staring up at the dark figure. It was becoming more and more focused. It's nose was thin, practically non-existent, and it's eyes were glowing a vivid scarlet.

"Yes," Scorpius yelled, over the creatures laughter. "It's Lord Voldemort!"

Suddenly, Voldemort shot a translucent green surge of light into the air from the tip of his wand - the sound it created echoed around the courtyard like thunder, and Voldemort let out a cold, high, terrible laugh. I screamed and bent over, and Scorpius suddenly put his arms around me, clutching me to his chest protectively. My hands balled up into fists, out of some old fighting instinct I'd buried deep inside. I closed my eyes, letting my hands rest on Scorpius' chest, trying to block out everything that was surrounding me. _What has he done?_

Then, everything was quiet. I couldn't hear anything, just the sound of my heartbeat, that had quickened to a rate I didn't think was possible. I opened my eyes. Lord Voldemort was gone, and so was the rat man that had collapsed. I pulled myself out of Scorpius' arms. Then Albus and Hugo rushed to my side, as did Lily.

"Rose, are you alright?" Albus asked. I nodded, then looked at Scorpius.

"Scorpius, what did you do?" I asked, quietly. We were still commanding the full attention of everybody surrounding us. We had the whole school watching.

"I...I don't know. It's kind of hazy...I think somebody tried to use me to trick everyone into believing that Voldemort had been brought back," he muttered, clutching his head "At least, I remember hearing someone talk about that..." he trailed off, slumping against the big rock that supported the stone bowl.

"Trick?" Lily asked, incredulously. This sounded rehearsed, and then I knew for certain - none of it had been real. Nothing. It was all part of the plan.

Scorpius rubbed his head, pushing his platinum blonde hair back from his face. "Of course. Necromancy's impossible. That stuff over there is Pensive. What you saw is a mix of two memories, both from my grandfather," he muttered loudly. This too sounded rehearsed to my ears, however the rest of the school didn't seem to think so.

"Are you sure? He's _not _back, is he?" Albus interjected, sounding genuinely terrified.

Scorp nodded. "Positive," he muttered. Scorpius looked pasty and frail - not from any injuries, just from physical exhaustion. This was acting, I could tell, because his eyes were alert, and scanning everyone around him. I knew what to give him. I fumbled around in my pocket, then wordlessly held out a small object to him. Scorp saw what it was and smiled, taking it gratefully. He then popped it in his mouth and ate it.

And without another word he fainted dead away.


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter Twenty-Seven:**

I'd visited him in the Hospital Wing once. Just once. I knew he wasn't really sick, but I knew he'd want to get away from all the gossip. So I gave him that. I'd fix it when everything had quietened down.

Lily, Hugo, Al and I had all spread the story that Scorp had been Imperiused. People swallowed it easily, and somehow Professor MacPhersonis heard and brought it up over breakfast the next day. She told everybody it wasn't Scorpius fault, and that You-Know-Who was not back, and she assured everybody never would be. My cousins, brother and I had held our breath, hoping she wouldn't announce it had all been a hoax, but thankfully she didn't. Nobody knew except for us and Scorpius. And we wouldn't tell anybody.

I was really surprised to find everybody in my year coming up to me and telling me how exciting it was to watch. I'd honestly anticipated horror, even cold-shouldering for what I'd done. But, in fact, everyone seemed to think that I was a heroine, and they envied me, and told me to pass on their _get-well-soons_ to Scorpius. After three days, there wasn't a person in Hogwarts, or out of it for that matter, who believed Scorpius was guilty. So that day, I'd gone down to the Hospital Wing, and given Scorpius the second half of his Fainting Fancy. I'd left before he'd woken up. I didn't particularly want to see him.

That day, Sam had broken up with me. It had surprised me, sure, as I'd been planning to break up with him.

"Rose, I don't think we should go out anymore," he'd told me, near the One-Eyed-Witch statue.

I'd nodded, and pursed my lips, my eyes dry. "Ok..." I'd muttered.

"I just...I like you. I do. I still like you. But I know that you don't like me. And I think I'm ok with that," he'd said, quietly.

"I do like you, Sam. I think you must be the nicest guy I've ever dated," I'd smiled at him sympathetically. "But I don't think I love you."

Sam had nodded. "You're being really brave," I'd added. Sam had shot me a questioning look.

"Not putting up with it. Actually breaking up with me. A lot of guys would ignore it."

Sam had laughed quietly. "You're being brave too. I just broke up with you, and you're actually being reasonable."

It was that easy - how we broke up. It wasn't even awkward, as I knew that Sam would move on, and he knew that I didn't need to. I didn't have anything to move on from. Occasionally I thought I missed him. Just sometimes, I missed having him around - not in a romantic way, just in a friendly way. I'd looked at the note he'd given me at Christmas, with my present, and then somewhere deep in my head a bell had started to ring. So I'd asked Mara if she could find the Chocolate Frog note Leanne had received on our first day. She found it for me. And something about that note made me seriously happy. Because I knew what to do next.

But first I had to organise the prom.

Mara, Leanne and I lived, breathed and slept _prom _over the next week. We poured our minds and souls into transforming to Room of Requirement. We got the word out by telling people in secret that we were having 'a _small _end of year party, just with a few close friends.' We'd already told everybody, but we just felt that they might need reminding. The headmaster of Hogwarts that Al's named after, Albus Dumbledore, once said something along the lines of, "What happened is a secret, so naturally the whole school knows." Well, by the day before the prom I had had three boys come up to me and ask me to be their date to the prom. I told each of them no, I was going solo to prom. They'd scowled, but then I assured them they were coming anyway. This had made them a whole lot happier.

On the last day of school, everyone signed our robes in Everlasting Ink, writing little messages. A couple of shy first years came up to me and asked if they could sign me too - I said yes without hesitating. Lucy Tomlinson asked too, and I told her she could write whatever she wanted. I had already told Hugo to keep an eye on her. It didn't seem real, leaving Hogwarts. And I didn't even know what I wanted to do with my life. I'd probably end up at the Ministry, but it sounded so dull to have an office job. Why couldn't I do something cool, like go to Muggle university with Leanne and Mara? Sheila was going to France to work in a restaurant called _Le Sorcier Enchantée_, Willa was going to work in the Goblin Liaison Office, and Harriet was, I kid you not, going to become the new Care of Magical Creatures Professor. I could see how she'd be good at the job, just not how she'd actually gotten it.

And me? Well, I assumed I was taking a gap year. I didn't really know what else to do but have a year off and try to work out what it was I wanted to do with my life. But I wouldn't worry about that today. Because today we were going to celebrate a fantastic seven years at Hogwarts.

When the school bell ended, Leanne, Mara, Shelia, Willa, Harriet and I stood up, walked to the front of the room and struck poses. We waited for the music to start up - I'd hidden Hugo's iPod somewhere in the room with a time delay so that it would play the music at exactly the right time - and then we performed a dance that made the boys wolf whistle, the girls go a vivid green with envy, and the teachers purse their lips. We were dancing to an old Muggle song called _School's Out For Summer._ I was laughing the whole way through - last year I wouldn't have dared to dance in 'such an inappropriate fashion' in front of teachers, but seriously, what could they do about it? And hey, the seventh-years liked it, and I knew it was a fantastic way to have one final epic moment with my friends. Then we all threw our hats in the air, the entire year, and it was _officially _over.

Nearly.

Now it was time for prom.

My friends and I rushed up to our dormitory. The other girls we usually shared with immediately left to go and get ready with their friends, so we had the entire dorm to ourselves. Willa had chosen a pale green, knee-length dress with real Swarovski diamonds embroidered into it, from the neckline down to the waist. Sheila was wearing a magenta trapeze dress that floated when she walked. Harriet had a little black dress - with feathers and diamante - and with her black hair and pale skin it really made her look classy. She kind of resembled a magpie, but in a good way. Leanne was wearing a long, tight red dress with a slit up the side. and fake rosebuds along the top. Mara was wearing a pale, mint green ballerina dress that ended in the middle of her thighs. Leanne looked sexy - Mara looked beautiful. For twins, they really could look different.

I was wearing the pink and white dress I'd bought at Oxford Street. The lace one. I had a streak of inspiration, and rummaged under my bed for a moment, much to the confusion of the others. After a moment of feeling around, I dug out the crumbled silver shoe.

"_Reparo,_" I said, pointing my wand at it, and the shoe pieced itself together. I cleaned it quickly, then went to find the other shoe. _Now if the person who sent me the shoe is actually in my year, they'll know...well, they'll know I have the shoe, I guess._

Leanne and I headed down a little early, to check on the finishing touches. Mara, Harriet, Sheila and Willa had been required to leave to meet their dates - it was going to be really awkward seeing Mara with James, but if they really liked each other there wasn't much I could do about it. They'd been dating nearly a year - I'd never seen James this keen on someone, or Mara for that matter. I had to face the possibility that this was real.

Everything was in order, so I left the room open and the band we had hired on stage, waiting for the first people to walk in. Leanne and I would return half an hour later, so as to be fashionably late.

"Why aren't you going with anyone, Rose?" Leanne asked, whilst we were lurking in the kitchens with the house-elves.

"Because I don't want to go with anyone," I shrugged.

"Are you sure?" she asked. I laughed.

"Of course I'm sure. Why...oh," I realised. "You think I should have gone with Scorpius," I stated.

Leanne bit her lip. "Well, not it you don't want to, but...ok look, Rose, give him a chance. Let him explain himself. I know you're probably mad at him for some reason, but please, just talk to him!" she begged. I paused. Then I grinned.

"Ok," I said, simply.

"Really?" Leanne cried. I laughed.

"On one condition," I added. Leanne nodded.

"I'll do whatever," she said with the utmost sincerity.

"I'm going to set you up with someone at one point, and you have to promise to dance with them," I grinned. Leanne paused. "You said you'd do whatever," I reminded her. She scowled.

"Fine! I'll do it! Listen, we should probably leave now, it started officially about half an hour ago," Leanne said, with overdone casualness. I nodded.

"Cool. Let's go to prom," I giggled, suddenly feeling extremely excited. Leanne and I clattered our way up the various stairs - after refusing about ten offers of food from the house-elves - and then finally we arrived at the room. The door had been shut, so I was assuming the music was getting a bit too loud.

_I need to go into the place where prom is. I need to go into the place where prom is. I need to go into the place where prom is._

A massive door appeared in front of us. Leanne let out a nervous giggle, then we pushed open the door and walked inside.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter Twenty-Eight:**

Everyone was here. Every single person in our year was here. The band was playing, couples were dancing, and the punch bowl was being spiked before my very eyes.

"This is perfect," I told Leanne.

"Definitely," she agreed.

We'd managed to make the room look like a forest on a starry night. I'd enchanted the roof, just like in the Great Hall, to mimic the night sky, and we had quite realistic looking fake trees sprouting along the walls. The floor looked like it was covered in autumn leaves, however in actual fact the floor was, again, enchanted to look like whatever kind of floor the viewer liked best.

"What floor do you see? I asked Leanne.

"I'm seeing dark, wooden floorboards with a rug in the middle," she replied. "What about you?"

"Autumn leaves," I answered. Leanne giggled. "Yours is cooler."

"Hey, Rose," I heard a familiar voice say. I groaned.

"Lily, I told you not to come!" I sighed, looking at her. She was wearing an incredibly tiny lilac mini-dress, and the face make-up was even more overdone than usual. _I hadn't even thought that was possible. _Even though her outfit was completely inappropriate for a fifteen-year-old...she looked really, really good.

"Please," Lily waved a hand in the air. "Did you really believe for a second that I wouldn't be here? I got Kej to take me," she grinned.

"He's better than Andy," I admitted. Lily grinned at me.

"I've got to run, but I think Al's looking for you," she told me, before running back to a waiting Kej for a fast dance.

Suddenly I spotted Sam chatting to his friends by one of the artificial trees. "Be right back," I said to Leanne, then I dashed over to where Sam stood. He turned at the sound of my high heels clattering on the floor.

"Hey, Rose," he said, sounding surprised.

"Hey. Can I talk to you for a second?" I asked him. He followed me without any further questions into a corner of the room, bewildered.

"What?" he asked. I grinned.

"You know, we still have that note," I whispered, smirking. He snorted with derision.

"What note?"

"The Chocolate Frog note you gave Leanne on our first day," I asnwered. His face froze.

"How do you know that was me?" he asked, a moment later. I laughed.

"Please, your handwriting hasn't changed at all. Do you still think all that's true? Do you still think she's gorgeous?" I whispered, smiling up at him. Sam looked shocked.

"I...well, I..." he stammered.

"Because if you do, go and dance with Leanne right now," I told him.

"What?" he exclaimed.

"I can't believe I kept you to myself this year. You and Leanne are actually perfect for each other. And she thinks your sweet. She told me," I grinned. Sam looked to where Leanne was chatting with Mara and James, then back to me.

"How are you ok with all this? She's your best friend, isn't there like, a rule, or something that forbids girls from dating their friend's ex's?" he asked, incredulously. I tipped my head to one side.

"Yeah, there is. But it's kind of overpowered by the phrase _go get her._" I explained, and Sam laughed.

"You sure?" he asked. I smiled.

"Completely. Go dance with her before someone else does," I ordered him. Sam grinned.

"Thanks," he said, then dashed off. He paused a few metres away from me.

"You look nice," he offered. I smiled, then made a _shooing _motion with my hand. He hurried off, and was by Leanne's side barely a second later. The way she looked at him when she saw he was standing there... I was never able to look at him like that.

"Rose!" someone cried. I whipped round to see Al half jogging, half walking towards me.

"Hey, where's your date?" I teased him.

"Where's yours?" he replied, as he arrived next to me.

"Touché," I laughed. Then he was serious.

"Rose, I want to tell you something. Do you remember the Acromantula night?" he blurted out, saying everything quickly, as if he were afraid he was going to chicken out.

"How could I forget that _wonderful_ night?" I asked, sarcasm positively dripping from my mouth like hot butter.

"Well, after that Scorp acted kind of distant with you, did you notice?" he asked. _This is unexpected._

"I guess...why?" I asked Albus, confused. Al looked kind of nervous.

"Well, it was because...because I told him to back off. That's why we fought, ok? I thought he was just having fun with you, like with all his other girlfriends, that it didn't mean anything to him...look, I made a mistake, Rose. Please forgive me, and him," he blurted out, begging me.

For a moment I didn't say anything. "Of course you're forgiven, Al. But what do you mean, you told him to _back off_? What are you saying?" I asked.

Al looked at me unbelievingly. "I mean that I told him to leave you alone, to stop hanging out with you so much..."

"Why?" I asked, my heart pounding much harder than it should have.

"Because I thought he wanted you to be his girlfriend, and I, well...I was freaked out! My best friend, and you...so I told him to lay off," Al looked down at the floor, ashamed.

"Why are you telling me this now?" I demanded. Al rolled his eyes.

"Because...well...I don't know! 'Cos I don't want to keep you two apart anymore?" he sighed. It was my turn to roll my eyes.

"You're not keeping us apart, Al! We're not going out!" I moaned. Al raised his eyebrows at me.

"Ok. Well, well, let me explain something. I'm going to reveal the inner workings of a boy's mind, Rose. Top secret stuff. First, he would have backed off. Then, he would have decided this was too hard to do, so he'd have tried to talk to you again. When he found out you were with Sam, he would have gotten jealous. Then he'd have tried being your friend, to get you to like him again. Eventually, he'd have found that too hard and cracked, doing something like, say, I don't know, grabbing you and hugging you in front of the entire school?" he cried.

For a moment I was stunned. Then it dawned on me. Exactly like dawn - something rose up inside my head, and suddenly it was like I could see again after a long period of darkness. _No. Way._

"Oh, my Merlin... Oh, _crap_!" I breathed. Then I lost control of my voice and I think some more explicit words cam out of my mouth. "I have to...oh crap, I have to find him..." I stammered, still not fully able to comprehend what Al was implying.

Al winked at me. "Thank me later, Rose," he smirked, before strolling off to rejoin his mates. I, meanwhile, dashed madly around the Room of Requirement, searching for a face. I knew I must look slightly mad, but I couldn't help it. I had to talk to him, I had to see if it was true. _If it is, I'm going to kill everyone else because they were right. _

Suddenly, I saw him. He had his back turned to me, he was chatting to some Slytherins. I walked up to him, and then without pausing to think reached up and tapped his shoulder. Scorp turned around. "Did you get my present?" I asked him, on a spur of the moment decision. _I have no idea where I'm going with this._

"See you, Scorp," his friends muttered, as they drifted away. Scorp turned to watch them melt into the crowd, then was instantly facing me again.

"What present?" he asked, confused.

"The Christmas hamper of food," I answer. It took him a moment to remember.

"That was you?" he asked, a few seconds later, smiling slightly. "Why?"

I shrugged. "I didn't want you to be on your own at Christmas," was all I said. Scorpius paused.

"I'd ask if you got my present, but you're wearing it," he chuckled, looking down at my feet.

I breathed in a strange way, making an odd sort of _huff _sound. "Of course it was you. Did you follow me up to Oxford Street?" I asked, smiling a little.

"Sort of. I told Hagrid you were planning to go to Oxford Street by yourself, so he asked if I wouldn't mind going with you. I went, I just...stayed behind, a little," he muttered.

"You told Hagrid?" I whispered.

"I felt like someone should know where you were. He seemed like the person you'd trust the most," Scorp replied.

"You saved my life," I admitted, looking down at my silver shoe.

"It's a fair cop, I saved your life, then you saved mine,' he said on as an afterthought.

"When?" I asked.

"After the duel with Al. You should really be Healer next year, you know," he added. I brushed this aside.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Nope, I'm all out of confessions. We good?" he replied.

"Finished," I answered, beginning to walk off.

"You seem kind of angry with me. What have I done this time?" I heard him call out. I whipped round to face him. _Actually, I am kind of angry. _I took a step closer to him.

"I wasn't angry. But you're so infuriating that I am now. You want to know why? I'll start at the beginning. You act like a total jerk for three years, then you just expect me to forgive you? And when I finally do, you screw it up by ignoring me completely for ages, and then getting mad at me. Then you try to be my friend again, and you seem to expect all this stuff to just suddenly not matter, and for me to run to you like a pet dog or something whenever you decide want me again? No. Just, no, Scorpius," I hissed, looking him in the eyes.

Then I walked away. It felt much better to say all that stuff. To get it off my chest. Because it was all true. I'd ignore the tears that were welling up in my eyes.

I walked over to where Sheila was...she was dancing with her boyfriend John. I tried Harriet...she was dancing with Tom. Mara...kissing James in a corner. _Ew._ I looked over at Leanne...who was talking quietly, deeply in an intimate conversation with Sam. Willa was by the snack table...dancing with Robert. _Is every single one of my friends with someone else right now? _Suddenly, I felt as if I were very little and alone, at a party with nobody else I knew. I was lost in all this.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. Scorpius was standing there, right behind me. His face was contorted with a mix of emotions I couldn't comprehend.

"You have every right to be mad, Rose. I've acted like a jerk. But you've not always been great to me, either. So bearing in mind that neither of us are innocent in this, just shut up for a moment!" he exclaimed. I involuntarily took a step towards him.

Suddenly I found his hands were on my back, holding me to him. I discovered that my hands were moving of their own accord, resting on his chest. All this happened in less than a second - I knew what was happening before it did.

He kissed me. His hand tangled itself in my hair, and his lips were warm against mine. In my stomach, I felt a glowing feeling, as if dawn really had risen inside me, and now the sunlight was warming me up from the inside out. I pressed myself against him, my hands moving to the back of his neck, pulling him down slightly, towards me. I think I actually wanted to stop time, right there and then, and just live in that moment forever. Because I knew that all year, everyone else had been right and I'd been wrong. I was pretty sure I was in love with Scorp, and according to everyone else the same had been true for him for a while.

It was the missing piece of the puzzle whenever I'd kissed Sam. That little vision in my head that I might be kissing someone else, who's features were blurred. Now the veil lifted, and the mystery person's features suddenly became crystal clear. It was Scorpius. It always had been, and I hoped it always would be.

He pulled away first. I leant my forehead against his. "You know, I could probably shut up for another moment, or two, or three..," I smiled, feeling the warmth of him against me. _This is what prom must be about. Finally getting the guy. Or is it the guy getting me? I'm not entirely sure._

Scorpius chuckled a little. "Why didn't you shut up years ago?" he murmured.

"Because you didn't shut up either," I whispered, pressing my lips once more to his. It was like electricity, literally like an electric shock passed through me, sending my entire body limp.

"Do you think you'll shut up again anytime in the future?" Scorpius asked a minute later, after I'd pulled away.

"Mmm, I don't know about that. You might have to shut me up instead," I whispered, letting my body sway in time to the music. Scorpius hands were on my waist, mine around his neck, but our heads were still extremely close.

"What do you think you'll be doing next year?" I asked him. "Will you do music?"

Scorpius laughed. "I don't think I'd be allowed to _disgrace the family name_ in that way. Besides, _Scorpius Malfoy _would look terrible on a CD."

"So have a fake name. Loads of people do. Be...Seth Michaels," I offered, smiling up at him. He considered this.

"Well, it's still S.M. I could try it out. Do you think people would really think I'm good?" he asked me, biting his lip.

"I think they'll think you're fantastic," I murmured.

"What about you?" he said, quietly.

"What about me what?" I asked.

"What will you be?" he whispered.

I paused. "Well, I know you were joking earlier, but when you said _be a Healer,_ I hadn't realised how great that actually sounds. I think that's really what I want to do with my life," I realised, looking into his eyes. Scorp smiled.

"Is there anything else you'd like to do with your life?" he smirked. I grinned back.

"Well, maybe...it might come to me in a minute," I whispered, pretending to concentrate hard. Scorp grinned and leaned down to kiss me again, sending a shiver of pleasure through my bones.

"Mmm, nope, definitely nothing else I want," I told him, smiling up at him. Scorpius laughed too, then stopped suddenly.

"You know what this means, don't you?" he whispered, seriously.

"What?" I asked.

"You might have to meet my parents someday," he whispered. I laughed.

"Believe me, my dad will be worse," I whispered, giggling.

"I think that's a risk I'm willing to take," he smiling, before leaning down to crush his lips against mine again.

An old memory suddenly resurfaced. I was standing on Platform 9 3/4 with my parents and cousins. My dad had just pointed out Scorpius to me, and told me to beat him in every test.

"Don't get _too _friendly with him, though, Rosie," Dad had said.

_Sorry, Dad, _I thought, looking up at Scorpius face, blissfully happy. _That's one promise I can't keep._


	29. Author's Note

**A/N:** Well, I hope you liked the story. I realised that due to my lack of authors notes it made the whole thing slightly impersonal. So here I am, a few months too late, writing to you. I can't thank you enough for reading the whole of my story! It means so much to me that you've taken the time to read my Scorose fan fiction. If you want to ask me anything I'm happy to answer it. Thank you so much for reading the story, I can't believe that anyone's taken the time to read this! Anyway, I hope you liked my story and thanks for reading!


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